


Transcending

by Daedamnatus



Category: Prometheus (2012)
Genre: Alien Abduction, Alien Culture, Alien Worlds, Assault, Diseases, Drama, Exploration, F/M, Other, Romance, Sexual Themes, Torture, interspecies relations, space
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-12-20
Updated: 2014-03-25
Packaged: 2018-01-05 07:21:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 12
Words: 58,771
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1091149
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Daedamnatus/pseuds/Daedamnatus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A rogue Engineer explorer stumbles upon a human colony in the year 2422. Scientist Kim Tang struggles with solitude among the colonists and her feelings for the mission commander. A human experiment turned spec-ops is left in charge of a seemingly desert planet. Three loners of different species learn to find meaning in their new existence. (Original sci-fi turned into fan fiction)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

HY-742 had seasons, and so far it was hard to tell which one they were currently experiencing. According to the charts, the temperature had been on the rise along with humidity. Outdoor activities became more sparse, and Kim had to figure out how to keep the students occupied.

It was one of those late afternoons at module C where Jessica Fernstein and her husband Mark were setting up a cook out, more like an improvised picnic under the central canopy. The rain would fall within a few openings to allow watering of plants and fruit-bearing trees. Smells of grilled pepperoni and tofu filled the yard, mixed with bright chatting and children's laughter as they ran around playing.

"Thank goodness for this accelerated growth hormone," Jessica said, turning around the vegetables on the grill.

"We would be cooking something different if not. Maybe Hydrian stuff."

"Seems we could only make bad coffee out of those plants."

They had tried pseudo-butternuts that were so bitter they couldn't be used for anything edible.

"And we used to pour soy sauce on everything back home," she said, ironic. "What would I give for some good old cabbage now."

She smiled as she used a table knife to sample a tofu pad for tasting.

"Thanks for letting us have this party," said Jessica after chewing the soft protein-filled steak. "The rain was really bringing us down."

"It certainly isn't helping. And you're welcome."

"I try not to think about home –Earth, too often. We left that crowded place for good reasons, and I don't feel that we should concern ourselves with what's going on there anymore."

There was a ruckus coming from Module A. The Colonial Marines emerged from the doors in their casual attire, half military fatigues, half civilian t-shirts or sports shoes. They all seemed like they had just taken a shower. Adams was carrying a high backpack. Everyone watched them arrive, cheering for them and offering them drinks or seats. Jessica was smiling with a heavy look in her eye.

"It's strange that you would feel so detached from Earth already."

"Maybe it's strange," she answered thoughtfully, "or I just keep my priorities focused differently. My family is here, Kim. They're all that matters to me now."

"That's nice."

She really meant it, and envied Fernstein for the extra dedication that she sometimes felt she lacked, despite loving her work. Having kept herself away from having a family to focus entirely on her mission now somehow made her incomplete compared to women like Jessica.

The chatting was getting really loud now with the soldiers becoming the center of the attention. Gina came to greet Kim and Jessica.

"This rain ain't going anywhere, is it?"

"I'm afraid we're in the beginning of a tropical summer, Lieutenant."

"Please," she smiled shyly. "Gina."

Jessica grabbed a plastic plate to serve the salad rice with her grilled vegan meal.

"Here you go, Gina."

"Oh, thank you so much, ma'am."

They had food processors in their barracks, but Kim knew how bland-tasting was the mixture it produced and couldn't blame them for wanting to join the cook-out. Soon, they were all around the grill, discussing recipes and spices, exchanging old childhood stories... Kim watched from the sidelines, taking it all in as if she'd have to type a report about them in the morning.

The drinks were all organically enhanced with aromatics, fruit-derived and sometimes sparkly. They had no alcohol and maybe it wouldn't be long before someone started distilling anything they could find that contained sugar. She just hoped it wouldn't be from Hydrian vegetables.

Soon after everyone ate, Vick pulled out a wooden instrument from his bag. A six-stringed guitar, it seemed, kept in pristine condition. Kim hadn't seen one in decades... Music on Earth had been conservative enough to sustain through the global war and it wasn't rare to find amateur musicians among pro-environmentalists and anti-Weyland activists. Judging from Adams' ease with chord-switching and right-hand skill, he had to have been one of them. His buddies wooed him and roughly patted him in the back.

"Okay, settle down, girls. That was just an intro." Vick tentatively struck a chord and turned to his impromptu audience. "None of you have a single idea what's going on, do you?"

Even Kim chuckled, arms folded she was eager to hear him perform. There was something about musicians that made everyone suddenly become intensely docile and happy. He seemed to search his thoughts for a second then began to play a mellow tune, and sung over it. His voice was soothing and aerial, the lyrics told about loneliness, finding a way through life, all that soul-searching stuff that wasn't directed to anyone in particular.

Jessica wasn't at the grill anymore, she had gone beside her husband and they were holding each other. He would let her rest her head on his shoulder as they listened to the bittersweet melodies. Kim was suddenly made aware of every couple that were formed in the gathering, and suddenly she couldn't find that many single non-hugging people around. Deciding that they only aggravated her feelings, she kept watching Vick getting more comfortable, more confident and he played with an enthusiasm she hadn't suspected. He looked at Martin who was improvising a percussion kit with sticks on the guitar bag laid over his lap. They smiled at each other and he sung a brightly joyful chorus, apparently making a song mix, a medley with something else. This one, Irina and Leo knew its lyrics and they sung along. It was so heartwarming and beautiful to hear. Leo even did the harmonics.

Kim smiled like an idiot, feeling all her worries lift off her chest as she was tapping her foot to the beat, nodding simultaneously. Vick and her made eye contact for a few seconds and he smiled back at her, blushing slightly. He broke the gaze to finish with an interlude. Everyone was clapping at this point and it was hard to notice anything else; even the children were involved despite it not being as fascinating as imaginary space crafts and aliens. Listening to this was so much better than the rainfall.

When the night had come there was only the fluorescent floor lamps to help them navigate between the shrubberies. Any more lighting would have created pollution for star gazers, something which she had insisted not be done for this particular module design. But with the bad weather, they weren't getting any help from the stars that night. People decided to go home and finish their conversations where it was warmer.

Kim had wished for Jonas to come and enjoy the evening with her. She had spent more time looking out than chatting and socializing because he wasn't there. She stayed last to help clean up, Corporal Adams came to her when everyone was gone and he made sure nobody was watching when he stayed to talk.

"Is everything alright, Kim?"

"Absolutely. Why do you ask?"

"Well, it's the polite thing to say," he replied with a shrug. "You look out for us and we have to do the same for you."

She was despite herself made aware of his charming innocence and how the lack of light didn't affect his handsomeness. Kim tried to stay busy, wiping the table with a wash cloth.

"Can't complain... That was a nice thing you did, with the guitar and your voice."

"Thanks, doing my best to keep good music alive in these parts of the galaxy."

"I'm glad you're among us then." She let the moment pass and the silence sink in. "Do you mean to tell me something specific?"

His blue eyes wandered for a moment before he replied.

"Yes. I want you to know that, if you want to, you're always welcome over in the barracks for a drink."

"That's nice of you. Thanks."

"Really," he insisted, "I know you don't give a shit about that kind of stuff but I'd really like you to. You don't seem all that happy, lately so at least it could take your mind off your troubles."

Feeling embarrassed, she tried to come up with a scientific explanation as to why not feeling all that excited about being on an extra-solar planet was normal after two months. Vick sat against a table with his hands in his pockets.

"I also want to ask you a personal question."

"Go ahead."

"You know the mission is never gonna be over, we'll always be assigned to our roles, I'll always be in charge of security. But that's actually an open-ended question for those who want to try something different. To answer that question, we're directed towards you for guidance."

"You'd be interested in reorienting?"

"I'll be honest, there are lots of things that I don't know and I want to be useful any way I can. Assembling the base and working with people like Stevens is great but, I feel like I could be doing more."

"We'll never run out of work if that's what you worry about. You're already a promising rock star, you could teach music to the kids."

He chuckled and smiled with embarrassment.

"I could give it a shot."

Kim gave him a gentle pat on the hand.

"It'd be great for morale."

A mood lift was what she had needed. Vick nodded with a smile and gave her arm a squeeze as he moved away to leave.

"Well it's time to hit the sack. We should talk more in the future." He winked, and walked away.

When she came back to her quarters they were still in the works, the furniture was minimalistic despite the space planned in the module that she shared with Makarand and Jonas. The management module. With her work as a geologist she had the choice to take leave of her functions as a supervisor if she so wished. Anybody with the required skills and working experience could take over.

She sat herself on the large bed with the blanket still packed in its plastic sheathe. A wall section was all holographic display for work purposes or decorative images. At the moment, it was set to a live feed facing the Archimedes. Watching the rain fall on the dark silver fuselage was rather soothing for a grim view. Kim wondered if the grass would change colors with all of this hydration.

Suddenly indulging an impulse, she accessed her workstation from her remote data-access sheet and brought up the security footage from outside Module C. The video had caught a view of the mini concert with everyone gathered around the improvised music band. Hearing the song and Vick's voice again gave her a thrill. There was something special about hearing a person's voice over music, especially when it was sung with talent.

Closing the stream mid-verse, she went back to the live feed outside Module D, switched to the general view of the compound and towards the ship again. There was a flash in the sky above it. She took it for lightning, but there was no crack or sound coming from over her head. Another flash, still not lightning.

Switching to a different angle from a camera place on the other side of the base, facing north, she saw the flash again. This time there was so little light around that she couldn't make any of the source that made that activity, except...

The hole in the ground was filling up with mud from the rain, and she could see the semi-flat surface of the oval shaped object rising up over the surface of the water. The dig was a dozen meters deep, there was no way for the stone to rise up that way unless it floated.

She realized with amazement that the stone was producing electricity. It confirmed all of her speculations.

" _Archimedes_ , this is Tang," she spoke into her wrist communicator. "Is anyone looking at the dig site?"

Waiting a few seconds for a response, the lightning kept on a steady pace. There was no one on the channel, apparently, and she waited further while putting on her biosuit. There was no way she could let this moment pass without first-hand readings. The thermo-environmental weaving in her suit would protect her from surges and shocks.

"Come on, talk to me, people."

Still nothing. She remembered about Vick's comm dysfunction when he was standing on top of the stone. Now, it was right there on the surface and the rain just helped the disruption spread everywhere.

Kim grabbed her helmet and left her chamber to bang on the door next to it. She couldn't go out there alone if only for consideration to her team and Jonas. He'd be worried sick if he found out she was getting near an unstable source of energy. She tried his private link and wasn't surprised to get an immediate reply.

"Still awake?"

"You've got to see this. The stone, it's active."

"What? Where are you..."

"Just about to head out and see it for myself. You can come along if you like."

"Is that a dare?"

Smiling at the implication she grabbed the data sheet in order to keep track of the surveillance while en route to the dig site. The two soldiers guarding the base entrance were sitting at a coffee table playing on their hand-held stations, they looked at her and stood up in unison.

"Ma'am."

"I'll be taking a buggy to the dig site."

"Bad idea in this weather."

"My scanners aren't recording anything, I have to go out there and pick up on things the old fashioned way."

They both looked at each other unsure of what to decide. Kim waved her micro-chipped hand in front of the door panel.

"We'll have to report this to Captain Makarand."

She was already out in the downpour when he finished his sentence, there was no time to waste. Taking one of the all-terrain short distance vehicles she set her navigator up on the dashboard and started the engine. Three bangs hit the fuselage, something she'd never heard before, even when it malfunctioned. Opening the hatch, Jonas was standing there, looking at her with his face all wet.

"The planetary grid," he shouted over the sound of the storm. "The lines cross over each stone, right?"

"That's what I want to find out." She fully opened the hatch for him to climb in, but he just stood outside. "It's active!"

"That's because of the magnetic field." He reached up and she gave him her hand, but he pulled her out instead of joining her. "Don't be stupid, Supervisor."

Resisting, she let go of him and yanked her hand back.

"Do you know something I don't?"

All he gave her was a stern look in response. Kim's heart pinched for a second and she wanted to slap him across his wet face. He was retaining information with no reason other than protecting her. But against what? It made her furious.

As she drove down the valley she pictured the grid in her mind, the lay lines covering the entire planet according to the planetary magnetic field, its "hot spots" and areas where the energy converged into the mass of the surface. If the stones connected to each other that way, intersecting across the continents, then something huge could happen in a matter of minutes. Or days.

Keeping a cautious eighty meters distance from the dig, she stepped out with her scanner probe and planted a tripod in the muddy ground. The stone was floating above surface, hit by the rain on its shiny black surface. Smoke was emanating from it. Nothing happened for a good five minutes as she recorded high electro magnetic field readings. Her ears were buzzing and she almost felt nauseated. She decided to let her gear do their job and climbed back in the buggy. It was strangely dark in the habitat and she didn't remember switching off the engines. Pressing the start button, nothing responded. There was no huff of the battery. Whatever was happening, the stone was sucking all the surrounding energy out of the cells. Cussing and swearing, Kim retrieved her probe. Nothing was working. Sniffling under her helmet, she tasted blood in her mouth.

"Shit."

The EMF levels were probably higher than she had ever experienced before, and they were causing all of her symptoms which were side-effects of the proximity of abnormally strong magnetic poles. Slightly panicking, she stepped away from the dig site, turning her stride into a jog. Running down the hill, she tripped and fell, face down in the dirt. She had bit her tongue and sadly she couldn't wipe the blood leaking from her nostrils and on her lips. Kim rolled on her back and, catching her breath, looked up at the sky.

The clouds were shifting rapidly in a circling motion. Short lightning strikes dazzled horizontally in the atmosphere but never producing any sound.

"What the..." she sighed miserably. "Why did we have to land here..."

A bang made her startle and she rolled over to get to her feet and running again. The crackling was simultaneous with a flash meaning that the lightning was in her vicinity. She didn't even dare look over her shoulder, it must have come from the stone.

Using what memory she had of the geographical maps, she went towards a depression in the surface, somewhere there would be shallow caves where she could find shelter. Only after long minutes of walking and feeling with her hands stretched out did she find a deep enough opening under a rock formation. There were no functioning lights in her suit, and she took her helmet off, knowing that the oxygen wasn't being recycled anyway. At least, she wasn't under the showers and there wouldn't be any predators out and about with that weather.

Now her concern was with her gear and in what kind of damage she would find the buggy after the storm, if it ever ended that night, and when she'd be able to crawl out of her hole. Waiting, she rested her head against cold stones behind her, knees propped up in an uncomfortable position. If she'd let Jonas take control and lead her back in the base she'd never have seen the cloud vortex. She would also never have experienced high EMF effects first-hand. She tried her communications system on but failed to get a signal, only static noise came through. She wanted to stand outside in the valley in case someone would be looking for her, but the prospect of being struck by lightning wasn't appealing that night. She calmed herself down and as tired as she was, dozing off was impossible with the constant pouring and the random flashes.

Soon, she heard her name being called in the distance, a faint male voice screaming at least a few hundred meters away. Disoriented, she didn't know what direction the  _Archimedes_  was.

"Over here!" she shouted back, coming out of her hiding place and getting wet again. It was really dark and she couldn't see any lights except for the base signals that blinked slowly in the mist. It was really far away, she began to walk. Taking a step in the muddy grass, the ground seemed to shiver and she felt a rumble in her legs, then in her entire body. Earthquake? No, she knew what seismic vibrations felt like after studying the glacier volcano in Iceland. This came from above the surface.

Turning around, she lost her balance at the sight of a disc darker than the stormy sky. It made no sound whatsoever, floating ominously perhaps in low altitude, measuring the size of three cargo ships. Kim had never seen such a craft before. It hovered slowly in her direction, and her instincts told her to run, but her reason asked her to stand still and observe. The craft was now her umbrella as it seemed to make a break. Whoever was flying it perhaps took notice of her. When she saw how it was rotating in the same position, she began to decipher geometrical shapes and lines along the black fuselage. It didn't seem metallic, but of the same carbon-based coating as the stone they had uncovered.

"Kim!"

She could hear Jonas clearly now, but she was mesmerized by the ship right over he head. Its lower structure seemed to change.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2 - a

Kim woke up in a muck of dirt, water and a strange viscous jelly all over her suit. The floor was hard and cold to the touch and she struggled to get to her feet. Her head spun. Whatever she could see – the interior architecture of an organic vessel – was thanks to a single fluorescent white light at the top of the ceiling. One corridor led to a brighter room, the other led to complete darkness.

"Hello?" she called, with a little idea of where she was.

She had wondered about this moment, she had even dreamed of its possibility. Now, it was very real and she was desperate to understand how, and why she was aboard the alien craft. And why her?

Putting the questions in the back of her mind she went on the quest to explore the ship, and began walking cautiously towards the more brightly light area.

"Is there anyone here?" she asked, hoping for something to react to her presence.

The next room was filled with moving lights floating in the mid-air. Stars, lines, planets and circles were composing a giant three-dimensional interface over a console as large as her quarters aboard the  _Archimedes._ Mesmerized by the dancing lights, she only began to pay attention to the people operating the console when they took notice of her.

A white, stern face with sunken black eyes peered at her from across the circular table.

The air refused to come in to her lungs, and her stomach knotted.

"Hey." It was all she managed to speak.

The obviously alien being stood with a strong yet fluid motion, clothed in a black tunic, and high as at least two meters. The blue and green lights reflected on his hairless skull. Kim heard footsteps behind her and another one was approaching from the corridor, equally as frightening yet statuesque in appearance. It had the physical presence of a man, the very familiar traits of a human's face like that of ancient marble statues. Standing two heads over her and just at the reach of her fingers, he looked into her eyes. Kim noticed that his were completely black, and the iris was only slightly brighter. Through his expression she felt more than saw that her presence was disrupting, but he didn't show any sign of hostility.

"Who are you?" she asked, desperate for answers. Those big answers every human sought when they wondered about their own existence.

The tall statue-like man blinked and looked across her shoulder to the holographic display. It changed at the command of the other alien who was controlling the map. Stars shifted and realigned to form a different pattern. Constellations had to be guessed and names were written in strange Sumerian-type symbols. Stepping closer, she tried to make sense of the display, apparently a navigation computer. Although unable to read a thing it was evident that she knew what she was wondering.

Turning towards the alien "commander" she uttered the name with as much care as she could, recalling all the different pronunciations she had heard over the years.

"Ah-nu-nah-kee?"

The alien behind her kept looking at what was now a model of the Sol system. It zeroed in on Earth. Kim sighed, feeling her chest sink in at the sight of the familiar planet. She wished they would show her the way they had visited her home thousands of years before. Instead, the view panned towards a formation of bright lights moving in gracious arcs towards Earth. That was the invasion, what was happening now, with the Grays. Their ships looked different.

"What's going on?"

Not sure that they would understand English, she hoped they had some sort of telepathic way to communicate. As she concentrated her thoughts towards the people around her she heard the soft yet deep voice of the alien behind her, uttering hesitantly.

"Other, take... planet. Your..." he waved his arm at the holographic emitter and it showed Earth's shadowed side.

Looking at him with amazement, Kim worked hard to understand.

"Who is taking my planet?"

"No," he said, impatient. "Other you. Taking planet... now slaves. Asleep."

Kim scratched her scalp in total confusion. Earth's dark side was black, the continents were barely distinct from the oceans, there were no lights.

"Everyone is asleep?"

"Yes."

"That explains why we lost contact with Earth."

He didn't understand her and furrowed his hairless brow.

"We have to go back," she thought out loud.

"No," he said again, and strode towards the corridor. Turning to look over his shoulder, he waited for her to follow him. "Eridu-  _Earth_  is dead."

She bit her lips, feeling her heart sink. The words hurt, though coming from someone whose native language was a mystery.

"Why are the others using humans?"

It was difficult to keep up with a six-and-a-half feet tall man. He stopped for her to reach his level and resumed walking. The ship was larger than she'd predicted.

"Humans, prime organisms. We created you. They... the others, harvesters. They take human blood. They feed... Darkness."

The next room was a poorly lit space with what looked like stasis pods with yellow liquid inside.

"Can that help us fight the invaders on Earth?"

"No. No fight. No war."

"Then how do we save the rest of the humans?"

"It is too late for them. Not for you."

"Why are you helping us?"

Looking as earnest as he already was, he stepped forward and with his hands around her face, lead her firmly inside the dark room, wrapped a hand around her neck and pushed her in a stasis pod that opened upon approach. Kim panicked. What was this thing doing with her and why did it have to happen to her?

"No!" she protested, trying to slip away but his muscles were like steel. "What the fuck are you doing?"

The vat was illuminated with a yellow light, showing that it was full of a strange jelly inside. Was he going to drown her in that thing?

He tipped her off her balance, lifting her off the floor and she fell in the pod. There was no splash, she just sunk in the viscous yellow gel and couldn't get back up. Fear made her gasp for air but the pod was now closed. Her hands met the canopy over her and she spat air bubbles. Some of the liquid got into her mouth, it tasted like water and it was warm. Banging on the inside of the pod, she saw the alien look down on her, waiting. She was just going to end there, as simply as that. Her breathing reflex made her open her mouth and suck in the fluid around her, and her body started convulsing. Everything turned black after several agonizing seconds.

* * *

Chapter 2 - b

Hours had passed since dawn. Jonas was covered up to his knees with mud from searching the dig site, the tundra and the small caves where Kim could have taken shelter. The marines were restlessly patrolling the area as well, without luck. Ironically, the sun was up shedding warmth on his back as a sadistic reminder that it was safe for him to be outdoors without his suit. He cursed himself again for not going with her when she was about to leave the base. When something was on her mind, Kim had to see it through.

Jonas sighed, pulling off his gloves to rub the beading sweat on his forehead and the back of his neck. No one dared address him which made him even more helpless and guilty. He'd lost his squad mates, his brothers, without being able to do anything about it. The feelings were creeping up again.

The stone was now resting at the bottom of the pit, like it used to in the first place. But he had seen the video footage and the lightning strikes falling on it had something to do with Kim's disappearance. At least, he wondered, if she'd been struck they would have found a body by now. Unless it had been taken away by the wildlife. Even then, there would have been tracks and traces of carbon.

He brought up his hand-held display to view the data she had been compiling about the stones, those artifacts that were just too conspicuous to only be part of the natural rock formations. If there were more out there, they had to be part of a system, some sort of communication grid. How it could be activated was a mystery, but what had happened that night was probably tied to this research.

"She must've taken a nap in the caverns up north. The air scanners didn't pan out."

It was Makarand, followed by Adams and Devereaux, all three of them in full garb and rifles slung across their backs. Jonas shut off his holo-screen and turned to face them. They were aware of his sentiments towards Kim and how they would weaken his aptitude to fill his position.

"The drones can't pick-up signals from deep underground," continued Makarand, his voice going softer. "We just need to sit tight, find the most likely direction to start looking and send a team. But this colony can't survive without supervision. We need your head in the game, Commissioner."

"I'll do what needs to be done. For now, I need to know what the hell happened to her."

They all did. And the civilians probably wanted to help find her any way they could, and it was his job to assign them to their respective tasks. This kind of situation could very well cause a panic movement and more people could be lost without explanation.

With regret he got aboard the ship to man the supervisor's station. Sitting at Kim's desk, he put the headset to his left ear and entered his pass log-in handle in the terminal. The letter appeared in full screen size.

SPECIAL ACCESS CODE ACKNOWLEDGED.

ALL SECURITY CLEARANCE GRANTED.

GOOD MORNING, COMMISSIONER.

She had been the one he'd never hoped to find in his life, and now she was gone. After everything he'd been through, all the loss and the grief were taking their toll on him. He could have nothing. He could have no one.

No, he had to keep his mind clear of any emotional outburst. Any mistake could cost him and other people's lives. Drying his eyes was tricky. He couldn't use his sleeves and couldn't keep wet tissues around. Forcing himself to swallow his tears he began running the colony's roster lists and reviewing all working and non working personnel. Luckily, everyone was accounted for and staying indoors. Or maybe they were all still asleep, and those who were active probably didn't want to risk themselves outside. Supplies were high in stock, food was being processed and energy dispatch was maintained properly.

Did they even care that Kim was gone?

Her biotic transponder was out of range of the ship's detectors. A malfunction or battery depletion would have sent a definitive signal message, which was not the case apparently.

Bringing the remote-access codes in his pocket he left the station to get back to the base. If Kim had left important clues behind, he needed to know what she was on about. Her devices must have recorded something before the black-out.

But, stepping out in the hallway of the  _Archimedes_ , he met with Linda who was surprised to see him emerge from Kim's work place.

"Jonas, I just heard about Kim. What happened?"

"I'm still working it out."

"Do you think something may have taken her? An animal of some sort?"

He wished it wasn't. Humans didn't need a reason to go hunting.

"We'll let you know once we get to the bottom of it."

He turned away to walk out of the ship as soon as he could, but he felt a hand wrap around his arm to force him back. Jonas would have confessed that his nerves were sensitive right then, explaining why his training kicked in. He grabbed Linda's arm, twisted it around her back and placated her against the gray-white bulkhead. She squirmed with shock and pain, resisting his grip and then he realized he'd crossed the line. Jonas let her go and she turned around, leaning against the wall to rub her painful wrist.

"I'm sorry," he said, hesitant.

"So am I," said Linda, her eyes piercing his face. "We'll talk again, Commissioner."

She strode off, her footsteps seemed to be resonating in the whole ship. He wondered if he'd gone too far, or if he'd barely scratched the surface of basic human relations. He had to stop meddling with them.

Back in his cramped quarters, his terminal was still displaying his message inbox since the last time he had checked it. The last received memo was from Earth, obviously, but no one had signed it. It came from an official department of the Confederation, that was for sure.

GOOD MORNING, COMMISSIONER JONAS.

DUE TO LIMITED RESOURCES YOU ARE TO CEASE ALL CONTACT WITH EARTH UNTIL GIVEN NEW ORDERS.

HY-742 IS NOW DECLARED SELF-RELIABLE AND SELF-GOVERNED.

ALL FORMER-CSE ORGANS ON BOARD (MILITARY, SCIENTIFIC) HAVE BEEN DISCHARGED FROM GOVERNMENT AUTHORITY.

DEAL WITH PUBLIC RELATIONS AS YOU SEE FIT.

He'd never been given this much responsibility in his life. He was a soldier, goddammit. Until the very last day on Earth, nobody saw his value on this mission and suddenly, they wanted him to be the head of mankind's first colony in outer space. The questions had been troubling him for weeks. The first few days he'd dismissed the message as a mistake. A joke, even. He had sent an interrogative to check that the message was confirmed but he received no answer.

Would they react if Kim had disappeared? Even if they couldn't do anything from their end, they could at least show some support. Maybe he didn't want to communicate anything that had no substance. If he didn't know what was going on, he preferred to keep things under wraps until he could bring a complete report.

Using his credentials, he accessed Makarand's messenger account as well as Thordisson's. Had they just accepted being jettisoned like that for so long without saying anything to him? His earpiece chirped with an incoming call. He pressed the receive button.

"Kim? It's Stevens. Where have you been?"

"This is Jonas." He took a slow breath. "Kim is missing, Ben. I'm stepping in while we're searching for her."

"Are you kidding? What happened?"

"It's related to a magnetic storm. Any ideas?"

The man on the other side of the call seemed genuinely shocked and helpless. Jonas couldn't wait to close the transmission and get back to work.

"If she was outside during the thunder there's a chance she could just be disoriented from a light shock and got lost somewhere." He continued after Jonas had stayed silent with skepticism. "Shall I wrangle up a search party?"

"No. I need everyone to stay put until we find out what's going on. I'm counting on you to keep this situation contained from your end."

"Understood, sir. And... good luck."

This was his kind of job. Rescuing people, retrieving them from dangerous places. Yet he couldn't tap into his warrior instincts in this particular context, and it frustrated him to feel less efficient than what he was trained to be.

He didn't know what to look for when he got back to the base. Kim's belongings were still in packing cases and the bed had no linens. One section of the room was just digital display, the window which normally would face the underground was showing the  _Archimedes_  under a sunny sky. Marines were patrolling around it while mechs were moving crates towards the cargo hatch, what tools and materials were left from the construction work.

Jonas found the command console for the display, sat in front of the computer at Kim's desk and rewound the history recording until the night before. The day turned to night time, rain was pouring and lightning could be seen intermittently in the clouds. A buggy drove through the panorama and he felt a knot form in his throat. Its headlights disappeared over a hill, towards the north where the flashes seemed to originate. Minutes past without a single change, he switched on fast-forward, forcing his attention on pixel fluctuations, movements... For a second, the clouds shifted laterally then resumed their position. Playing back that portion of the recording, Jonas narrowed his eyelids and looked closer.

"What the hell...?"

A knock on the door made him startle and hit pause.

"Come in," he called and heard the door hiss open in his back.

"Commissioner." Without even looking he knew it was Corporal Vick Adams. His voice was a little hesitant but earnest. "Am I interrupting..?"

Getting up, Jonas followed his gaze. The wall display showed the same recording and the dark shape that he was tracking when he thought the clouds were displaced. A large, oval, black disk dominated the sky over the  _Archimedes_. It seemed much more obvious on a big screen.

"Is that what took her?"

"I don't know what it is," answered Jonas. "It coincides with the time we went out after Kim."

The young man came closer to the picture, clasped his hands in his back and his expression was mixed.

"Do you think she knew about this thing yesterday? She seemed convinced something was out there last night when she got our sentries to let her through."

And he had let her go despite all the warnings, Jonas thought, because he wanted her to be free to make her own decisions. Because he loved that about her.

"We have to assume this thing will return," he said trying to sound tough. "And we'll need to be ready."

"And they got Kim. We have to assume that until we find her... or her body."

He turned away, his mouth pinched shut which Jonas interpreted as contained anger. The lines on his forehead were also a sign of sentimental involvement. It was possible that Kim touched other people the way she had affected him, however knowing he wasn't the only one made it hard to accept.

"Corporal," he said before taking a slow breath. "Did she say something to you?"

Adams hesitated.

"Nothing of relevance, sir."

Everything was important to him right now. He needed to know. Adams needed to  _understand_  how important she was, and that went far beyond their common need for comfort by fishing for information in her quarters.

" _Don't be stupid._  That's the last thing I said to her. And then I just watched her leave. You'd think the least I could do was to go along and help."

"Then we'd be missing a supervisor and a commissioner. With all due respect." Adams scratched an itch on the back of his neck. "Do you know if she was close to anyone from the payload? Any friends we should investigate?"

Jonas thought immediately of Thordisson. His constant distrust of Kim in regards of their budding relationship could be a cause for extreme action like this. But Jonas had known of the scientist's whereabouts the entire night before. If he hadn't dared show his face that day it was because of his ambiguous attitude and there was no need for his sour remarks.

Kim's lab partner was unrelated, then there was Stevens who was apparently friendly with everyone he spoke to. But Jonas couldn't picture a specific interaction between Kim and the rest of the crew beside his own. They had spent most of their free time in close quarters, working together and sharing their impressions on various topics.

"She was lonely, wasn't she." There was no question about that, Adams knew it too.

"Permission to speak freely, sir?"

"Sure, Corporal."

"It's fucking unfair is what it is." He waited a few seconds before elaborating. "I asked her on a date, merely hours before."

"And how did that go?" he said, not without a pinch to the heart.

"Ah, no joy. She's a professional... can't pull her away from her duty. I don't think she even acknowledged me. And I didn't see anyone else show interest in her. "

"Are you making a point, Adams?"

"Just saying... We're both here in her room while the rest of the crew is going on about their lives. Someone so dedicated deserves better than this. If that thing, that UFO took her, she could be anywhere. Probably off this planet by now."

"I hope you're wrong."

But he was probably right if an intelligent alien species did pay them a visit that night. Kim's body wasn't found, and if she was still alive she had very little chances of surviving an alien encounter. He imagined retrieving her cold body in a creek somewhere, or worse... lost in outer space and never to be found.

And they hadn't even kissed when they had the chance.

It would have changed everything.

He shut down the playback, extracted the data on his pad to transfer it to his own station. Something like this needed to be studied further, it was something Makarand would be very interested in, too.

"Tell me what you've found," said Adams as he turned to leave. "Let me know if there's anything I can do."

"There's a chain of command-"

"After what Makarand refused to tell us and the shit going on back home? Screw the chain of command."

Once alone again, he reviewed the recording from the afternoon of the day before, going from one surveillance cam to another until he found Kim. She was in the back of the interior yard in what looked like a picnic party, and people were all facing toward the marines with Adams playing music. Jonas was surprised, he'd never suspected anyone to be able to deliver a sound like that aboard the ship. Everyone seemed enthralled in the song, even Kim, as retreated as she was while the rest of the civilians were paired up and cuddling with their significant others. Where was he at that very moment?

He didn't know if it was the mellow tones or what he was seeing, but his breath locked and his vision went blurry. Jonas pinched the bridge of his nose and squeezed his eyes shut until it cleared.

He started to understand why Adams had come to visit. He also admitted that he wasn't the only one to care for her when he saw the rest of the evening from the same camera. Adams approached Kim, as it had been accounted, and they began to talk. The exchange was so polite, so friendly and painfully respectful that Jonas almost wanted Kim to fall for Adams after he had sung for almost thirty minutes. She was roughly the same age as him, and he had a joyful attitude that could bring some light into her life. Even after sharing all they had, Jonas wanted her to be happy without him.

Despite himself he continued watching her every movement, to the limit of spying as she returned to her quarters to take a shower, change and get back to her work. She had spent several minutes studying the storm and the dig site until she sent out her first call to the ship. Nobody could answer her because of the electromagnetic black-out. Then she got him on the ECA line while she put her environmental suit on.

It had been her call and she had assumed all responsibility, she knew the risks and went anyway. Jonas had to stop blaming himself and start looking for solutions. If she wasn't coming back any time soon he had to find a replacement for the supervisor tasks while he took care of his latest discovery.

If she was taken by that dark UFO then he would need all of his resources at hand to figure out where it went, how to find it and, if it was flown by aliens, he hoped they weren't belligerent. The stories of people saying they had been abducted by aliens made him uneasy. Was Kim going through something like that, was she being hurt? Were they ever going to let her go alive?

Heading out, he turned towards the door to his quarters and saw Andrea O'Reilly. She was a student, why knock at his door for anything? He suddenly remembered Charles Grevin still unconscious in the medbay.

"Good morning Andrea," he called her.

"Commissioner... Ah, I didn't expect to find you here."

"What is it?"

"Every morning I visit the medical bay, but I couldn't find Doctor Oshima. So... I came looking for you since you let me in the first time."

She bit her lower lip, hands nervously clasped in front of her. She had no idea. Jonas nodded and walked with her back to the ship.

"What's going on?" she asked shyly as they proceeded out of the compound.

"We have a missing supervisor."

"I've heard about that... I want to help, but how..?"

Jonas slowed to a stop, realizing that she was an astronomy major.

"What do you know about planetary magnetic fields?"


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

She woke up surprised not to be in her own room, in a bed, but inside the vat full of jelly. Her chest was in pain as she gasped to breathe, feeling her lungs full of liquid because she was drowning. How could someone drown for so long and not be dead?

Kim brought her arms up and pushed the canopy to escape. Punching it didn't manage to open it either. It was dark outside of her transparent sarcophagus. And in her attempts at panicking and screaming, she only made her case worse by using up what little energy she had left. Obviously she was able to breathe the fluid in the vat so she had time to think. Was she being taken somewhere like this? Would she ever come back to her people? Would she see Jonas again? If someone was looking for her they could be searching a long time unless the aliens released her first.

And if they did, she would serve a purpose of theirs otherwise they had no reason to let a live witness run about, jeopardizing their cover. Because these people wanted to stay hidden, as far as she could see. Kim had to change that. Why else would they keep her alive?

She patiently waited for something to happen, feeling no sensation of hunger or thirst, being fed by what she understood was the nutritive yellow fluid that she breathed. Hours, perhaps a day had passed since she had left the colony and, the only problem aside from being stuck in a vat, was that she had to go. Unable to move or reach her knees, she had to relieve herself in her suit hoping that there was a waste evacuation system in this pod. Because if there wasn't, she would soon be reabsorbing something foul. Slumber took her away again.

Something strong pulled her quickly out of the thick water, raising her chest up and she got nauseated, threw up over the edge of the pod for what seemed like minutes. Not only were her lungs full of breathing gel, but her stomach was, too. Her brain was about to explode and she recognized signs of fever, she felt herself sweating and yet she was shivering. Lifting her eyes up she saw the tall white-skinned alien, his sleeves rolled up revealing developed muscles in his forearms.

"What do you want from me?" she asked after she finally spat out the last of her vomit.

The alien being had no reply for her but to leave her alone. Kim shook her head in despair. It took some work to get stable on her feet. After all it had been what, a day? Two, maybe? She needed to see daylight to regain notion of time.

A folded black fabric was given to her by large white hands. Taken aback by the gesture, Kim froze and made eye contact with the alien who impatiently pressed the item against her arms. It appeared to be clothing when she inspected it, as she held them in front of her they unfolded like a robe with sleeves and leg pants of some sort. Good, she thought, since her suit was uncomfortably useless and heavy from all the jelly. But taking it off would feel like not being part of the Archimedes mission anymore. She opted for practicality and removed the bio-suit, feeling the fresh air against her bare, wet skin as she did so. Her trembling didn't improve and she felt dizzy. It wasn't so much the fact that a towering pale alien was looking down on her half-naked form, but the realization that she felt completely abandoned by her crew. She touched her new sleeves. The clothing had a strange canvas fabric that was smooth to the touch and yet rough in aspect. It fit her, to her great surprise, because she wouldn't expect these people to have short friends other than herself.

"So you want me to dress like you but you don't want to talk to me anymore?" she sarcastically said. Kim placed her bio-suit over a nearby table with her boots sitting upside-down to dry. The thought of the alien having remorse for brutally handling her crossed her mind.

"You were decontaminated," he finally spoke, his English enunciation improving drastically.

She looked at the vat that was her bed for the past hours. "And I thought I wasn't used to lemon jello. Speaking of which, I need to go to the bathroom."

"We prepared you for a long voyage," he explained, "I will help get what you need to be comfortable."

Kim ran her hands through her soaked hair, sniffling sadly at the feeling of being captured against her will. He gestured for her to follow him. Walking barefoot behind the alien, she brought herself to accept that it was her only hope to survive.

"Does everyone here know English like you do?"

"No," he answered solemnly, looking right at her with his black eyes. "I took it upon myself to learn to speak your language when you came aboard."

"What?" She tried to walk as briskly as she could, holding her bladder and keeping up with his long strides. "You didn't know any English before I arrived?"

She thought she saw a hint of a smirk on his pale lips.

"I have studied your culture and only learned to read and hear your language. When you were in decontamination I had time to study it further."

"Then you learn extremely fast... What is your name?"

The question made him stop in his pace, giving her a stern look.

"You may call me Ikar."

His voice had alien undertones and an inflection she wasn't sure she could reproduce. She attempted a pronunciation.

"Eeh-kar?"

He nodded gravely, and she put a hand on her breast.

"Kim."

Processing the information, he tried to say her name in his low voice, emulating the English 'k' sound as best he could. It sounded strange to hear her name being spoken by an alien.

They proceeded through the dark hallways. She was taken into a small chamber of sorts, with what looked like cushioned seats in a circular formation around a low table in the center of the room. The walls around it had three more openings to other rooms.

"Is this a cabin?" she asked.

He led her across the chamber and into another room. It was spacious, giving her an idea of how big the ship really was.

"It is... a living area," he said. He motioned a hand towards a smaller room ahead. "Private waste disposal."

Kim nodded, grateful, before rushing into what she understood was the bathroom. She found a waist-level sink and the farthest wall had a translucent veil aspect, she guessed it was a shower type of thing. The toilet was made of the same dark metal-like composite matter as the rest of the materials around. There was no water in the bottom of the bowl, but she imagined it had some sort of suction system to eliminate wastes. Her feet didn't touch the floor when she sat down, it wasn't as comfortable as she'd liked but it was better than doing her business in a corner or a litter box.

As soon as she got up and stepped away from the toilet, it closed up with a shutter lid and there was a flushing sound, quite similar to the plumbing systems they used in the Archimedes. Her mind wandered; why didn't they try to contact her? Was she far from the planet now? Would she ever get to see her crew again?

There was no mirror in the bathroom, as if that species had no care for their appearance, maybe their lack of hair gave them no kind of narcissistic behavior. She found a sink and a faucet that activated automatically when she placed her hands underneath, expelling a clear liquid she could only assume was water. She splashed her hands and face, and didn't find any kind of dryer or towel. She used her new clothes to dry her hands and face, appreciating how soft the fabric was against her skin.

Ikar was sitting on the edge of a large sort of bed, patiently waiting and stood up when she got out of the bathroom. A strange feeling went through her body when she realized they were in a bedroom. For how long was he going to stick around? He came closer and raised a hand over her head. Kim squeezed her eyes shut in pure reflex, hoping he would be quick if he wanted to harm her. She felt the weight of his hand upon her scalp, running slowly down the side of her head, smoothing down her damp hair. He ran his fingers through the strands and approached his face closer, smelling her dark locks with genuine curiosity. Kim looked up at him, as puzzled as he was.

"Had you never met Humans before, Ikar?"

"No. The last time my people were in the presence of Humans, it was very long ago."

The thought of the Anunnake coming to Earth in the ancient times crept back in her mind. Ikar let go of her hair and took a step back.

"Where are you taking me?" Kim asked, hoping to get a clear answer.

Parting his lips slightly, she saw his hesitation.

"To my home world. My task is to bring you in for studying."

"Studying?" she repeated, and looked around them. "We have to travel to your planet for that?"

"You can tell my people what your world is becoming, and we can gain knowledge of your species. You must remain with us from now on."

Her heart almost stopped at the thought of being taken away forever. Kim swallowed but couldn't get rid of the fear blocking her throat. Ikar reacted at the sight of her face decomposing with the shock, grabbing her upper arm as some sort of comfort. Kim shook it away furiously, in vain. His strength was phenomenal and she only managed to hurt herself by resisting. He caught both her arms and sat her down on the bed as she started to whimper miserably.

"I'm sorry," he said, letting her go but stood over her like a creepy guardian. "You must cooperate, it is for the greater good."

Kim remembered her thoughts of sacrifice, devoting her life for humanity and expanding the limits of universal awareness thanks to her research. She never thought it to become this real, and being surrounded by the unknown. She was terrified and her animal instincts told her to escape, find a place to hide, or fight back. It took all of her self-control to reason with herself: she had to do as she was told and gain knowledge, take advantage of this golden opportunity she was given.

"Okay," she said, calming herself down. "Am I a prisoner?"

Ikar took a knee in front of her, making eye-contact. His stare was unsettling but she was no longer upset with his appearance, accepting that he was different and benevolent. She wondered what his profession was, if he regularly abducted people and was used to flash-learning alien languages.

"As a pacific creature you are not a prisoner among us. But you may not wander throughout our ship. If you need to see something specific you may do so in my presence. Not everyone is so understanding of your species and will attempt to destroy you if they wish."

"Why are you different from them?"

He raised a hairless eyebrow.

"Is every Human the same, where you come from?"

Something about his reasoning reminded her of Jonas, but she pushed the thought away, knowing it would only make her angry and sad that she couldn't see her friend again.

"We're all different," she admitted, "but most of us choose to be similar, in order to fit in. It's the herd mentality."

"What did you choose to be, Kim?"

His question got her to ponder her choices, staring at her hands in her lap. They looked so tiny next to his, resting over his knee not so far from hers.

"I followed my own path, I guess. I never wanted to compare myself to others but I always tried to be different."

Like going for a hike in the middle of a magnetic thunder storm at night.

"But I don't know why."

When she raised her eyes she saw him smiling slightly. His face was hard, stern, almost mean-looking. But his mouth and jawline were soft even though they inspired strength. He seemed calm, more awe-inspiring than frightening.

"Am I in danger?" she asked, her voice involuntarily high-pitched.

"Not with me," he replied. "You will be safe as long as you do as I tell you."

"Do others speak English like you can, back on your world?"

He seemed to think, moving his eyes sideways.

"I doubt it. I will be relaying your words to them, unless you would learn our language."

She would, eventually, if she had to end up living there. She bit her lips, coming to realize that her fate was in their hands. In the hands of Ikar. She began to feel differently about him, it was almost bitter.

There was a silence during which she heard the low humming of engines, or whatever moved the craft across space and time. Ikar slowly stood from his kneeling position, cautiously steadying himself on the bed. Something caused him pain, Kim guessed it was his legs or his back. She looked up, curious.

"How old are you, Ikar?"

"I could not tell you in Human terms, but for my people I am considered young. Individuals of my species live long lives. I have not yet reached half of mine."

She paused, carefully choosing her words.

"Are you hurt?"

His eyes widened for a fraction of a second before he resumed to his stern face.

"I have sustained severe injuries in the past," he began. "But I am well, now."

Kim couldn't repress a twitch of uneasiness as he'd confide her with that information. Did he trust her that she wouldn't take advantage of his weakness? What was she supposed to do now that she knew he wasn't at a hundred percent of his abilities?

"I must show you the rest of these rooms," he said, cutting her thoughts short.

She followed him around, feeling she'd be doing a lot of that from now on, and he motioned towards the farthest branch of rooms across the circular table and couches.

"I will be sleeping in this room. If need be, do not hesitate to wake me. Again, do not wander in the ship without me or we would have to restrain you."

"Okay," she said in a breath, catching the drift.

He turned to the middle hallway and entered. It was a larger room with dark gray furniture, seating, another table and also machinery.

"You will find food and drink here," he said, and pointed at one tall piece of technology that looked like an oval fridge with big white buttons. "I will teach you to use the food processor. Are you hungry?"

She shook her head. The time spent in the yellow goo had made her sick, she couldn't swallow anything solid, perhaps due to an effect on her stomach. Ikar seemed to understand her gesture, and worriedly looked down on her.

"Kim," he said, his voice softer yet it made her shudder hearing her name being spoken like that. "How are you feeling?"

She wasn't doing great at being excited with this new adventure. Her head tried to see it as a new life beginning, she wanted to have fun learning everything about this species and their technologies, but a flood of emotions was brought to the surface at the idea of changing everything so suddenly. Just when she had only adjusted to her surroundings on HK-427, she had to start all over.

"I think I need a moment to take it all in," she said and sighed, looking right at him. "I feel overwhelmed."

Ikar touched her arm again, slower this time, and she tried not to seem so disturbed by him anymore.

"You were under a magnetic storm, and you were lost. Had we not taken you in, I don't know if you would have survived."

Kim sucked in some air and started trembling uncontrollably. Ikar started walking her back to her room.

"I guess I owe you my gratitude," she said, unable to remove her cynical tone. "Don't get me wrong, I'm really excited that this is happening to me... It's just so sudden, and I fear for my friends. I- care about them."

No reply came from the pale alien and he pulled a corner of the dark blanket, inviting her to sleep. Kim looked at him, trying to picture Ikar as something else; a warrior, a guard or maybe an ore extracting technician. He had an impressive build for a majordomo. Maybe he'd be at her door in the morning with breakfast, who knew? If he was injured it must have been bad enough that the healing took too long, or didn't take at all for him to resume his heavy-lifting work.

She realized she was staring when he tilted his head to one side, waiting in polite silence. Kim approached and, considering laying down in her new garments, drew her attention to the bathroom.

"Can you show me how the shower works? I would like to wash up."

He nodded sharply, his jaw muscles twitching a little bit. He showed her how to open and close the translucent veil, how to activate the water and adjust the temperature, showed her where they stored soap – or the alien equivalent for it – and drying towels. There were hidden compartments everywhere if she knew where to press or what to wave at.

Once alone, she enjoyed the feeling of warm water gliding down her face and back, ridding her hair of the dried out gel from the decontamination vat. Taking deep breaths, she emptied her mind, forbidding herself to worry about the things she could no longer control. She had to let go of her past, no matter how painful her memories would be.

After twenty minutes she got out and wrapped a towel around her head while drying everything else. She wanted to be clothed before exiting the bathroom, unsure if someone would be in her bedroom. Having no doors for the bathroom made her uncomfortable, it was another thing she had to adjust to. That, and the general coldness of everything. Her body was used to warmer air conditioning.

She didn't see Ikar but she found her boots at the foot of her bed, and her hazmat suit neatly folded on a nearby table. Kim took the towel off from her head and sat on the bed, untangling her hair with her fingers. She wished she had shortened them when she'd had access to scissors, now it was a nightmare to take care of without proper shampoo. Not a chance that Ikar's people would even know about shampoo.

Peering out the doorway she saw a blue light illuminating the round chamber. Ikar was sitting on the circular couch, operating a holographic console on the table, using both hand gestures and pressing white gel keys on the computer. Kim smiled at the three-dimensional graphics of star constellations, strange glyphs and scripts floating around. Ikar saw her and raised his brow. She briskly trod over and sat across from him, bringing her cold feet up on the seat.

"You aren't resting," he remarked, focused on reading a paragraph closer to the table.

"I feel better now," she assured, bringing her knees up against her breast.

Her heart was racing in anticipation of what came next. Would he reveal to her the meaning of life and the universe?

"How long until we reach destination?" she asked, thinking she'd start small.

"For you, two days."

Two days, she thought to herself, at an average of the maximum speed for the fastest space crafts she imagined, would translate into at least a light-year in distance. It was the minimum distance between stars in this part of the galaxy and that mean, by the time she'd arrived there, a year would have gone by for those who didn't travel. It was a somber thought and she decided not to dwell on it.

"Why are you not revealing yourselves to Humans?" she bluntly asked, hoping to put a huge political conspiracy to rest.

Ikar raised his eyes at her again, this time with a suspicious frown.

"Because Humans have changed. You have harnessed star-traveling, and you used your intelligence for destruction and neglected your home world. Those left as victims to the harvesters are no longer a danger to themselves or others."

"So..." she tried to process everything with a cold head. "You just decided to move on."

"The colony you established is also different, we were watching your progress."

"What were the magnetic stones for?"

"That planet used to be a seeding ground for our geneticists, until it was turned into a relay point for our scouting fleets." He blew air from his nostrils, as if exasperated by her curiosity. "Not all of us were pleased to find Humans settled near our relays. Our primary objective was to make you go away, however we did not expect to see how you treated your new environment."

"You spared us because we were environment-friendly?"

"We thought we would reach our council and report those facts to them, and reconsider our interfering policy with your planet. We do not wish for the harvesters to end up destroying it as well... for that, we must save your species for it to fight back. Only our council could allow us to act."

"But why choose me?" she inquired, almost to herself. "We have better leaders."

He brought his hands together, meshing his fingers. Again, it seemed very human and it was hard not to compare his attitude to that of people she had known. From a life that she'd never know again.

"We never choose leaders," he replied sharply.

A person with power and responsibility would try to abuse such a chance and return the situation for their own interest. Kim would never betray her principles and she would honor justice, compassion and friendship. Being hard with herself made her able to see qualities in everyone and she thought of Jonas, the only man she knew had done nothing but good deeds for the world and became their leader over night. Did Ikar know about such people? Could he even consider how much they had sacrificed over two generations ?

Kim chose not to give out any names. What if she had no better purpose than this? If she played her cards right, this alien species could change their minds about Humans. Seeing renewed hope ahead, she no longer felt tired.

"Tell me what happened with the previous humans you brought to your planet."

Ikar gave her a puzzled look as if she had asked something absurd.

"I do not know if that ever happened," he answered. "Why does it matter?"

"I'm honored to have that chance, to go to your world and meet your people. I just worry about how I should act, I don't want to offend anyone there."

He leaned back in the couch, the shadow of a smile crossing his face again. There was so little emotion he could express, she tried her best to read him through his self-control.

"I should not influence your behavior prior to our arrival," he said solemnly. "Perhaps you will want to see things for yourself and decide how to act."

She involuntarily bit her lower lip, feeling that he was telling her what she already knew, deep down. There was no way she could claim false pretense in front of beings that her ancestors would have called gods. If their intelligence was measurable, it was likely superior to hers. But even that was an assumption she needed to let go of in order to stay confident in her own abilities.

Ikar rolled his shoulders as if to stretch them, breathing out slowly before getting up with the same caution she noticed before. Kim got up as well, seeing the holograms disappear progressively.

"How did you get injured?" she asked, remembering what he'd told her.

He stopped on his way to his bedroom, looking at her with what she could only identify as a tired, endeared gaze.

"Not all foreign species are as pacific as you."

"You mean, you were attacked?"

She saw him hesitating again. If his size and strength made him appear able and wise, every time he'd stop not knowing how to react to her was a hint of his lack of experience in at least one area. He faced her and gave a look over his shoulder, checking the entrance to see if the door was closed. Kim wasn't sure it was locked, though.

"I received several blows to my back, my flesh was burned by acid and there was substantial nerve damage to my spine. Our physicians were able to recover most of my functions, but the scarring didn't take as planned."

He detached a pin at his collar and opened his vest, unveiling alabaster-white skin. He took his top off with deliberate, slow movements, his face wincing when he pulled his right arm out of his sleeve. Kim felt her cheeks heat up, embarrassed of her reaction at the sight of his huge torso. Every muscles on his chest were clearly defined, with no visible body hair, but her wonder turned to a sting of pain when she saw the scar across his back as he turned around. It was a long canyon of carved flesh that barely flattened, which meant it was fairly new, perhaps a year old.

He turned it away from her and she had her hands over her mouth in horror.

"I'm so sorry," she said, her voice almost a whisper. "You must be in so much pain."

"I survived but it will be many cycles before I can resume my combat status." He pulled out of his other sleeve, removing the entire garment. Kim fought not to stare at his impressive body. "I apologize for making you uncomfortable with that sight."

"No, don't worry about me. I'm glad you told me what happened, it took some guts."

"Guts?" he repeated.

"Courage, you know?" she shook her head internally. "It's not easy to admit having a weakness."

His lips stretched thin as if he'd relived the pain of his wound again. Folding his vest over his forearm, he resumed walking to his room. He paused before losing sight of her.

"Thank you for understanding."

She acknowledged with a nod, not knowing what to say to that.

"Kim..." His free hand took support on the door frame, as if stopping it from closing just yet. "I promise you won't have to see this again."

"Hey, whatever happens, happens."

She smiled forcefully trying to conceal the awkward feeling of shyness. Ikar smiled back, perhaps with surprise that she could lift her own mood. Didn't his species know humor?

They both retreated to their respective rooms and she sat in the enormous bed, trying to relax her mind thinking about the things she would usually do before going to sleep. There was no computer, no datapad to read, no movies or old TV shows to watch. Why humans needed so many distractions in the first place was certainly the difference between them and people like Ikar. Or maybe his room had more than hers, maybe he had a cool entertainment system that would blow her mind. She kept wondering about Ikar, what his previous life was like before he was doing what he seemed to be doing – what? Abducting people and studying them? She thought of his home, what his family and friends were like if he had any. If he had a wife, would she be the one comforting him when the pain would be too much at night?


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Kim woke in a startle, realizing that the dim white light from the center of the ceiling was still on, and that water was running somewhere, she heard it in the plumbing. Perhaps it was Ikar, taking a shower. She couldn't fight off the idea of hot water running down his ugly scar. She wouldn't trade places with him for anything, not if he didn't have some sort of drug or technique to handle the agony all day. The sounds of water stopped and she missed having a clock to check. It could have been minutes or hours since she'd been snoozing. If it was the morning, so to speak, she could get up again and try to get some food in her. If not then she had to doze off and hope that Ikar would still be in the mood to converse with her the next day.

The next time she opened her eyes, she pulled herself out of a dream where she was sitting in the lab of the HK-427 colony, studying magnetic fields. Her vision went from blurry to the two dark pools that were alien eyes on a pale white face. Kim yelped something unintelligible as she startled, finding herself in a blanket she'd never slept in before. Sitting up, she caught her breath as well as her senses. Ikar stepped back, holding a hand up.

"I'm sorry if I scared you."

"Dammit," she sighed, calming herself down. She'd thought she was back home, where she belonged. "Are you... Ikar?"

Strangely it came to her that she wouldn't be able to tell any of them apart since they all wore the same outfits and were all tall and white with no hair. The one standing at her bedside nodded, smiling reassuringly.

"It's still me."

Kim pulled the blanket around her shoulders, feeling cold and out of place. She squeezed her eyes shut and voices came to her, faces and comforting company that she longed for. Jonas, Victor as well. She couldn't let go.

"You may rest some more if you wish," continued Ikar. "I have prepared sustenance in the dining area."

His voice was strange to her ears compared to the familiar tones of her human friends. Would she ever hear them again? Kim began to shake and sob. Unable to sort through her feelings she decided to embrace the full blow of the shock, if only to get it over with, and hid her face in her arms and into the dark fabric of the sheets. She knew Ikar would be watching but it didn't matter for now.

She felt a depression on the mattress and the weight of a heavy hand on her shoulder. It was warm, and when she looked at it she thought it was a statue's hand. Ikar looked down at her with his inhuman black eyes. Kim couldn't let him awkwardly wait and mentally slapped herself back to reality. She slowed down her breathing and stopped crying enough to be able to speak.

"I was dreaming about my friends, they're my only family. They probably think that I'm long gone by now."

He seemed to muster an appropriate response. He probably knew more than he'd tell her.

"You may hold resentment against me and my people for taking you away from yours, but in different circumstances I would have never had the privilege to know you."

"So abducting people is the only interaction you have with other species?"

Again she was cynical and distant, her protective mechanism kicking in. Ikar seemed to take offense, lowering his brow over his eyes at her.

"I have orders and missions to complete. That is my life's purpose." He paused, for effect or because he needed to pick his words. She was sure that he was fluent enough to think in English now. "Come, you must eat."

She hesitantly took his hand as he helped her out of the alien-sized bed. His skin was soft, devoid of any hair whatsoever, but she couldn't just stop and examine it. Not now.

Once in the kitchen area there was a set of bowls and round containers on the table, all of these things in a dark gray color, either of stone or metal material. She sat down opposite of him and copied his moves. There was a large and smaller bowl that he opened by twisting a flat lid, each one containing some sort of hot porridge. She grabbed a black spoon type of utensil, while very large it still served its purpose. The large white porridge was rather bland, but with a sweet aftertaste and smelled of cinnamon. The small bowl contained a pudding-like meal with little crumbs on top. It was bland as well and she guessed it was made for more developed taste buds.

Ikar poured two cups of water and sank his down. He was done with his breakfast while she was still sampling each course. Everything was packed with protein and fiber, but her body was half their size in average, she didn't need so many nutrients in a day. Ikar observed her as he waited until she was done eating. This time he seemed fascinated by her hands.

"Shouldn't you be eating with your crew mates?" she tentatively asked.

"I have my meals by myself." He paused, looked away for a second before going on. "I develop no attachments with my scouting teams. The switches are easier that way."

Kim put the lids back on her bowls and he took the plates away, storing them in the fridge type of closet. Was it going to wash them and refill them in the morning? Kim rested her elbows on the table and scratched her scalp. It usually calmed her down but that day it had no effect. Having eaten was good, though.

"That's what I tried to do," she began telling him, trying to chit-chat. "But my last mission was about settling a new colony and creating new ties, enjoying life and staying hopeful. I was just getting used to the idea of having someone to share my days with."

Ikar froze, a few feet away from her, arms to his side.

"Were you planning on finding a mate and breeding?"

"No, hell. No." She almost instantly regretted her knee-jerk reaction to the mention of children. "But I was tired of feeling lonely, you know?"

Slowly, he sat back in front of her, looking sad.

"I know."

Kim was already tired of complaining. She looked at him and he seemed to have had everything bottled up and was hoping to have a conversation with another being, even a human one, in order not to feel alone as well.

"Why do you keep working with your injury? Can't you retire and live planet-side with a wife and kids?"

His pale lips trembled for a short instant.

"My people don't show great concern for... damaged individuals. Although I'm able to fight and carry my own weight, my peers view me as unfit to defend a home. Scouting the rim worlds is the only occupation for me. I could not apply for self-sacrificial rites because of the attack on my nervous system, my genetic material is altered by the trauma. Seeding a world with damaged material would be the highest criminal act."

Still clutching at her hair, Kim couldn't shut her gaping mouth at his story. He went on.

"Do not think less of my people because of what happened to me, I am grateful to be alive and working to expand knowledge."

He appeared at peace after speaking, even though she shared his sadness, understanding too well what it was like to be left out.

"That's what I do," she said, trying to find common ground and changing the subject. "I research planets and study their minerals. But for my last mission I had to supervise my crew and the colony, people depended on me and I had to rely on them. I'm not very good with people, rocks are easier to work with."

Ikar blinked a few times.

"Are you unable to have offspring?"

"I have no idea," she said, sensing the tension rising. "I don't intend to breed. We have an overpopulation issue and I don't feel the need to have children."

"One must find a mate first," he replied, looking down at his hands. His voice lost some confidence when he spoke. "I'm sorry I have taken the chance from you to have a family."

"I'm not going back to my people, am I?"

He turned his head from left to right, jaw clenched and silent.

"I was instructed not to make ourselves known to Humans, not after what happened thousands of cycles ago. We are not your gods, we do not reward or punish. We simply perpetuate our material wherever it may strive."

"But you study us, still."

"You represent our future. We have seized to reproduce since our lifespans are... extensive. Overpopulation is a great concern for us, as it is becoming for you. So, once my people go extinct your mutations will show us how you will perfect our evolution." He squinted his black eyes. "Humans have failed to harness their full potential, and we don't yet understand why."

She thought she could see why. For so long, human societies were too stigmatized with bigotry, greed and false dogmas, hindering brain development and sense of compassion.

"I'll try my best to help you learn about my species," she said with renewed purpose. "But I want access to your computer. I want to learn about you as well, how you evolved and all the places you've been."

He seemed to ponder the conditions.

"Of what use will that be to you if you may not contact your people again?"

She sighed, reminded of the sad truth of being taken away from everything she knew.

"I'm not your prisoner," she decided. "So unless I die, might as well try to adapt to your culture."

Kim wasn't looking forward to the hearing with the council Ikar mentioned. If there was one thing she hated was to beg for mercy, it would make her no better than a slave. She had to use logic and reason with these people, that was the only way to earn her place.

"In time, all of your questions will be answered," he replied, a little smile stretching his mouth.

It was so strange to be in her position, Kim had to repress a shudder as she sat opposite this tall statuesque alien who was friendly, yet everything around her suggested that friends didn't belong in that ship. There was no warmth in anything, except the appliances.

"How big is this ship?" she curiously asked, looking around.

"There are five other quarters just like this one. We store enough provisions for two cycles. Sometimes, we exchange goods with relay stations and bases to prolong our deployment."

"Two cycles... that's like two years for Earth?"

"A little less." He got up, slowly but without showing any sign of pain. "You may follow me to our observation room."

As soon as she got up herself, there was a low-pitched tone coming from the central computer, and a fuzzy holographic image came to life. Ikar walked to it and pressed a white oval button. It focused into the clear moving picture of one of his crew mates who spoke in a stern Sumerian voice.

Ikar gave him a short reply and the image faded away.

"What's going on?" asked Kim.

He turned a worried gaze at her.

"We've intercepted a distress signal and we've deviated from our trajectory. Rescuing our own is part of our duty as a scouting team."

Kim felt her heart pump with excitement. She was going to see more of these aliens, the Anunnaki, and have a chance to see this crew do its job. If she was allowed to even leave these rooms, of course.

"Can I come with you?"

Seeming intensely puzzled, Ikar sharply turned and slightly leaned forward.

"Do not speak unless spoken to," he warned her coldly. "Never get out of my sight, and do not touch anything."

"Sounds easy enough. Just one second, though."

She rushed back into her room and slipped into her boots. There was no way she'd walk in those freezing halls barefoot again. Tying her loose hair into a knot, she joined Ikar at the main door and nodded to signal him she was ready. He nodded back, his lips twitching into a shy smirk as he pressed the sigils that unlocked the opening.

The crew sitting at their post in the main chamber that was the command deck took immediate notice of her, and Ikar addressed them in a commanding tone. She stood at his side as he had told her while she was being vetted for. One of the technicians – she guessed he was a tech, telling by his suit and the specific details and robustness of it – stood and seemed to study her. Ikar kept speaking and waited a moment. There was a short exchange from everyone, as if they were taking a vote, and Ikar nodded deeply in gratitude. Kim wanted to smile, feeling somewhat relieved, but knew better than to express her emotions. Neither of them seemed to show much anger or otherwise.

Ikar turned to her and gently grabbed her shoulder, looking her in the eye.

"We've agreed to let you observe our research, but you will return to your quarters during the operations."

"Will you be going out there?"

Suddenly she worried he would have to exert himself out on the field, in his condition.

"Yes." He raised a hairless eyebrow at her. "These people may not be in condition to be transported directly, if they're in danger we must help them be safe first."

The tech, and another crew member were looking at their exchange in English. Kim felt her stomach churn nervously.

"Okay. I'll do what you tell me."

She didn't want Ikar to get in trouble because of her. He made her sit in some sort of couch similar to the ones in her quarter – their quarters? - and she stayed silent, looking at Ikar who took a seat at a command post. He looked like a leader, he was maybe a mission captain and everyone had their say on anything that went by him. A democracy, she thought. Their communication was sporadic if not rare when they operated the ship. Now that she had a few minutes to study them, small facial traits and individuality were apparent to her. One seemed a lot younger than him and thinner, another was more bulky and had even more severe aura about him. She saw no females, however, or perhaps they were asexual. A fourth Anunnaki appeared to be twice as old as Ikar and did not speak much; his ear lobes were particularly long. Looking at Ikar again, Kim thought he had the most appealing face of them all, or whose traits were a little less pronounced than the others. What if that closeness to humans was a genetic disorder?

Their navigational diagrams showed that they approached a vessel, something oval in shape and similar in size as their craft. It had sustained damage. Had there been an attack? Maybe they had gone through a meteor shower or flew across an asteroid field.

Contact was attempted once more with the derelict ship, up to no avail. Upon observation Kim deduced that it had been sending out a distress signal for some time in hopes that someone would take a nearby route and detect it per chance. The crew of the other ship could be long gone for all they knew. A display of the ship's schematic appeared with details of its damaged hull and several blinking dots appeared in a small cluster, inside its structure. Ikar along with two other crew members got up. The boarding party? Kim looked up at Ikar, hoping he'd not forgotten about her. He stopped and waited until she stood to follow them obediently.

"What goes on now?"

"We retrieve the survivors."

He sounded confident that he would find them, that they were there at all. Back in her assigned room and about to get the door to lock, he gave her one last gaze.

"Be safe," she said, more out of politeness than actual concern. She had no idea what he was capable of and didn't intend to undermine his skills.

Looking down over her, Ikar took a step inside, walking towards the computer table.

"This command activates communication with the deck. I will be able to hear you through this channel."

"If I just speak up you'll receive a transmission?"

"So will every member of the crew. Use it with care."

He switched the interface off and turned back to the exit after one last hesitant look.

"I'll be here, then," she said.

Kim didn't know how to be awkward and just waved him goodbye.

Solitude never bothered her before, or at least she didn't expect to feel lonely again after the Archimedes mission. Perhaps it was her fate to generally find herself in this position, and she was well-suited for it in any case. Friends, family and coworkers did not seek after Kim because she didn't need them to fill her life. She had always found something to set her heart into.

Exploring the rooms which she assumed were Ikar's private quarters, she found more concealed compartments, cupboards, and storage. She busied herself making her bed after seeing that her host kept his room perfectly tidy. Her own living spaces were always messy or a little cluttered, the symptom of an ever-preoccupied mind. When she was done cleaning and exploring, she sat on the couch and started counting the minutes. Turning the console on was still a bit scary for her as she didn't want to accidentally hail the pilot and confuse the crap out of everyone. Deciding that worrying would do no good she laid on her side and napped. Something made a buzzing in her head, a low frequency vibration of some sort, and everything went black.

Coming to after what she thought was an hour, she'd heard muffled noises outside her door. How could she have lost consciousness so suddenly? Was it hypoglycemia, out of nowhere? Counting back the weeks, she didn't know when she would be menstruating again. The thought of being uncomfortable and ill-disposed made her anxious. Then it occurred to her that if she got sick, caught some disease or had an allergic reaction, how would the Anunnaki help her? She'd been relying on human medicine for so long it was a mystery how she would get by without it. If the food she'd ingested earlier had any effect on her physiology then she'd have to suffer through the side-effects instead of starving herself.

She got to the food dispenser and tried to remember how Ikar had done to get drinks out of it. Whatever her condition staying hydrated was always a priority. Successfully obtaining water she drank the whole cup but the buzzing in her head persisted. She had to lie down or she would soon get dizzy.

You're kidding, she told herself. He's out there doing some real work, with a handicap, and you're lounging around feeling sorry for yourself?

It wasn't long before she started guilting herself into actively cleaning, rearranging the few items she had in her room – her hazmat suit and the helmet – and sat back on the bed. The main door slid open in silence and she heard footsteps thumping into the apartment. Kim jumped to her feet and saw a tall armored bald man entering. It was Ikar that she recognized when he looked at her, sighing tiredly. The armor he wore was very different from what she'd seen him wear so far – black fatigues of sorts – and he had a neck seal that probably connected to a pressure helmet. Kim smiled with awe and relief. He hadn't abandoned her and she wasn't going to have to teach someone else English. Ikar walked into his room and she hesitated to follow him.

"How did it go?" she asked across the round chamber.

There was no reply or perhaps she had gone deaf? Waiting patiently she began biting her lower lip, hoping the news wouldn't be so bad that her asking would irritate him. Or had he changed his mind about keeping her in his quarters? There was rustling of clothes coming from his room.

"We had to purge the ship," he finally said, his voice a mere breath compared to what she was used to hear. "There was... an epidemic. The few who still lived would have damned us all with the contaminants they carried."

Her mouth hung open, speechless at the thought of the other ship's occupants waiting for a rescue for who knew how long. Ikar sat on the edge of his bed, dressed in a dark shirt and loose trousers, resting his forehead into his hands. He was clearly affected by what he'd seen. And what he'd done? She quietly walked into the room, against her fears of being so close to someone who'd killed people in cold blood. Innocents, condemned with a dangerous disease perhaps, but it was terribly ruthless.

"Are you all right?" she asked.

"I will be, thank you for your concern." He raised his black eyes at her, apologetic. "The voyage won't take much longer now."

Her jaw tightened at the idea of meeting his species and not knowing what was to come of her.

"If I'm not a prisoner or sentenced to die on your world, what will happen to me?"

There were no lines to read on his face but he swallowed and stared ahead of him. "You would be free to live among us for as long as you learn our culture and abide by our laws."

And she was not to want to return to her own kind. Making a mental note of it, as if trying to make peace with that fatality, she kept digging for his intentions toward her.

"I would really like that," she said, trying to smile but felt sad. "I don't know how I could contribute, though."

It's been her major life dilemma; to feel useful and always applying herself in a task. She knew it was eating at her because she'd lost all purpose and all certainty. It was disturbing and she felt as if standing on a tight rope and about to fall.

Ikar widened his eyes and she didn't register him catching her when she lost all sensation in her legs and her brain felt about to explode. He carried her in his arms, keeping her conscious and she noticed how warm he was, and how good it felt to be held that way. She didn't want him to let go when he laid her on his bed, removing her shoes and pulling a blanket over her. Still she felt ashamed of being so weak, sick and unreliable. Ikar spurred into panic around her, discarding his armor into a hidden closet as well as everything he'd brought from the outside. He disappeared for a few minutes and came back with a tray of things she couldn't identify from where she lied. Propping another pillow beneath her shoulders, he helped her sit up.

"Here," he said, approaching a small cup of hot fluid.

"What is it?" she asked before complying.

"Just an infusion of herbs to stimulate the immune system and reduce fever."

Better than nothing, she thought. It tasted of sweet tea, not bad. She only drank half of it and he placed it on the table nearby.

"The last time I felt this way I had a drop in hemacytes and an iron deficiency."

Ikar raised a hairless brow, she took a breath realizing she'd used words he didn't yet know.

"It's nothing serious," she corrected, "don't worry, I just need to rest."

She was on the brink of tears when he just stood over her in puzzlement.

"How often does this happen to you?"

"It usually doesn't," she confessed, avoiding his eyes. "I feel better already."

But she knew the buzzing would return if she got out of the bed and tried to stand. One thing was certain, though; she wasn't going to stay bed-ridden until she'd face the council Ikar had mentioned.

"I will have our best physicians look at you for a cure," he said solemnly. "Our genes hold the key to all of our illnesses. We may even trade some of ours to help you."

"What?" she sat up, attempting not to confuse reality with dream state. "How close are we, genetically?"

"We're practically the same. Interbreeding with a sub-species is not unknown of, although it's rare and under many rules and exceptions."

She widened her eyes and pictured him half-naked again, feeling herself blush slightly at the idea of reproducing. Ikar looked intrigued by her reaction.

"I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable," he continued, "or if my answers are unsatisfactory. I'm still learning your language and I don't know what I should reveal to you just yet."

"I'll survive," Kim said sarcastically. "I'm just wondering why you're so kind with me when you could just let me sleep in stasis. What if I had been an older human, or a male? Would you have taken me in the same way then?"

There was no point in cutting corners, she told herself as Ikar pinched his lips in what looked like remorse or deep thought.

"I would have nothing to gain either way," he said, almost sounding depressed. "Stasis is for the heavily injured, the unstable and dangerous individuals. You seemed harmless to me, and I wished for you to adjust as best as possible before reaching our destination."

He was keeping a safe distance, perhaps to minimize the risk of infection if her illness was a form of parasitic disease. Kim knew, though, that he was restraining himself as well. The last time he'd sat in bed with her she'd burst into tears.

"What if I can't be adjusted?" she muttered. "And the only time when I ever felt at peace was on my own, in a place where I decide what happens to me?"

"If being alone is what you wish then I'll see that no one tries to interfere in the future. It wouldn't be easy but I'll try."

He was disappointed, obviously. Kim no longer felt dizzy or weak, but her ribcage was under a weight that kept her from taking a deep breath. She sat up to inhale more properly, feeling her lips tingle. What was this now? Pheromones? She wanted to slap the senses back into her for not being more suspicious about the tea he made her drink.

"I know you mean well, but I also know you're lonely and you want to see where this is going between us." She moved a finger from Ikar to herself. "There's something you should know about me."

She paused, wondering if she was going to lie to him or to herself the most. It was a necessary lie, she had to protect herself.

"I'm incapable of being intimate with anyone." The words flew out of her mouth but her chest pains increased. "I've never been in love and I never had a mate. I never will. That's why it's best that you either put me back into stasis or get rid of me some other way."

Kim fought to not let tears slide down her face. There wasn't another moment in her life when she'd wished so badly to be hugged, held and cared for. For years she'd trained herself to fight her urges and discard anything that she wanted deep inside. Looking up, she was that Ikar had raised an unsure hand up to his heart, his face the expression of misery. Kim looked at her own hands, curled into her lap and shaking.

What have I done?

"What made you this way?" she heard him whisper.

"I don't know. If I knew I would probably have a different life."

Perhaps she'd respected too much of everyone else to ever try taking what she wanted, and vice versa. Her decisions had always been in relation to her outward rationality and they made her life coherent. Jonas would have tried to help her, too. And then she would retreat into her safe haven of solitude again. Nothing was ever done to bring any sort of risk or excitement, aside from traveling into space for years and risking her life every day by just picking at alien rocks.

"Kim."

She startled, not because he'd spoken her name again but she felt a weight on the mattress and he was coming to sit near her. Breathing through his open mouth, she saw that he was nervous yet his hands didn't tremble when he reached to touch her face. His white, marble-like skin was warm when she put her hand over his. The absence of hair made his skin the softest she'd ever felt. As he riveted his black eyes into hers her heart started to race. Ikar sat in front of her, taking her knees over his lap and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. She'd have cried in despair just a moment earlier but now she found herself smiling.

What's wrong with me? She nestled her head against him, breathing his sweet scent wondering if it was natural or from a sort of perfume. Her hair that she had tied in a knot was now flowing around her shoulders and she felt him stroking down her back. He pressed his forehead to hers making her entire body tingle.

"How do you feel now?" Ikar asked.

A little voice in her head was crying out "Stockholm's syndrome!" but she ignored it, deciding that only her happiness mattered. She let tears flow down the sides of her face, trying not to sob too deeply.

"Different," she said, still trying to stay in control of her emotions.

He blew air from his nostrils in a chuckle. He seemed so human to her. And when she touched his hairless head, gently running her hand around the back of his skull, it sent her back to reality. Ikar was an alien, one of the Anunnaki. It was terrifying to think about. Her hand shrunk back to her breasts and she found it hard to breathe, panic taking over her.

He pressed her tighter against his chest, caressing her hair. His strong arms were reassuring but she couldn't get over the fact that he was... an alien.

Dammit. Why can't you just sit back and enjoy anything? She wanted him, she thought, deep inside her belly and in her heart she wanted his body, his mind, everything. He was huge compared to her and it would hurt for days but she was ready. They were moving too fast, she was aware of that too but she had so many years and wasted time to catch up.

But her mind said "don't" and she was stuck, sitting there while he rocked her slowly in a moment of peace and caring so much for her. Kim focused on her breathing, trying to accept that this was the best possible outcome for this situation and in that moment she could ask Ikar for anything. Because he was obviously happy that she was there, and they weren't lonely anymore.

He will protect me, she told herself. I can feel safe.

"What will happen after my hearing?" she asked, lightly caressing his cheek with fascination.

Ikar grabbed her hand to kiss it. "You worry too much."

"Am I not entitled to worrying? Considered-"

"You're not a prisoner," he continued. "I promise you, everything will be okay."

She wanted to believe him, however thinking about his so-called handicap and the way his society had set him apart, how could he guarantee her safety? In her mind, she began to think of plans to escape her fate, and his own, by capturing the ship together and flying towards the depths of space, never having to obey any command. There was always that option.

Kim hugged Ikar, suddenly aware that a relationship could be mutually beneficial for them. If finding a mate was that important he would regain status and she would learn to fit in and get a sense of belonging.

"It may seem frightening for you right now but you need to believe me," he told her, stroking her hair. "No one would dare to harm you for the accomplishments you've made for your species."

Sitting face-to-face she looked at him, trying to decipher the look of honesty in his expression and trying to remember it. Ikar straightened with a deep breath and tentatively adjusted a stream of hair behind her ear.

"I would let the universe have its way with me once I know you are well and safe on Esharra, my home." His melancholic smile broke her heart.

"What if I refuse to stay there? Would there be any way to take me back to my kind?"

Ikar looked away, pinching his lips in disappointment.

"If that is what you wish, I would plead for you."

He didn't believe in those odds for one second, she guessed. Kim decided to forget about these hopes of happiness and optimism. She needed to get out of his room and patiently wait for the next day to come.

"You should rest," Ikar said, following her as she cautiously stepped towards her room. He was steadying her by the upper arm when she appeared to lose balance. "Your complexion has gone more pale since yesterday."

"Look who's talking," she snorted mockingly, catching the edge of the circular couch. "You can let me go, now."

And he did. Kim felt like crying but did her best not to let her weakness show. She made it back to her room and almost let herself crash into the bed. Heavily lifting her buttocks onto the mattress she turned and Ikar was in the door frame, a look of deep sadness across his perfect face.

Perhaps being alone really was killing her, but how could she prove it and what kind of survival skills had she learned all those years? She wasn't going to let this emotional battle take her down so easily.

He sighed.

"What would you do if you were me?" she asked to make him understand.

"Only you know what is best for you, but..." he leaned against the door frame, folding his arms across his chest, "I don't think you know how much you are worth."

Something in his voice, in his eyes, made her mind snap. How could he be so certain?

"You've been studying me since we landed on that planet, haven't you?" She accusingly stared at him. "You picked me for your own interest while I was about to be rescued."

After all, he had probably been living through hell and suffered through too much frustration to pass up the chance to pick up a young virgin female to keep as his play thing.

"You just couldn't help yourself..."

Stop it. You fucking hate yourself, that's why you can't see how much he cares.

"I didn't know it was you, that night," he reflected.

She looked up to speak again but she was alone.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Esharra was minutes away as they entered the star system, emerging from hyper-speed traveling through alternate planes of existence. Ikar had never tried using those parallel dimensions to do more than reaching from one point to another across the galaxy. He'd been fine obeying the naval fleet's commands for almost a thousand years.

There is an alien in your quarters, don't you forget that.

Pelak was at the helm exchanging navigation notes with Telenir, the dean of the crew who was ready to mark his hundred-thousandth year once they returned home. Pelak had a group of loyal friends and brothers in arms to come back to, after his scouting duty. Every foot soldier needed experience in deep space before earning their title as warriors.

"Are you ready?"

Ikar turned around and saw Enlir, the cadet of the group, coming to sit beside him at the command deck.

"What are you going to tell the council?" he continued.

"The truth," Ikar replied to him, trying not to sound defensive.

"You shouldn't let your emotions show, Ikar. Even if everyone understands where you come from, only pain can come out of a story like that."

Ikar took a deep breath and pressed the pressure regulation system diagnostics. Diagrams flew across the space above him as the constellations and planetary trajectories superimposed with his vision.

"Commencing descent," said Telenir.

He was the pilot, laconic as they'd come and with more on his mind than anyone could imagine. Ikar had tried sharing quality time with his elder in the crew but even with such a great wisdom, Telenir couldn't help but express pity toward him. Telenir was a master in several crafts, taught younger and less young pupils and served the fleet to attain recognition among the society of elders, the council. The logic behind service was simple: to help even the most accomplished to retain humility and set their priorities straight. So when someone spent more than hundreds of years roaming the stars, it meant that they still needed to learn.

The ship's fuselage adjusted to the change of pressure under the pull of Esharra's gravity. The atmosphere was forming a bright blue crescent over the jet-black backdrop of space. The two suns were on the other side of what was nighttime on the surface and, contrarily to other civilized worlds, city lights weren't visible from orbit. Everything seemed as though Esharra was still in its pristine condition.

Ikar didn't have a place to live there, his family house had been repossessed a few years after his rehabilitation as a sentinel and both his parents had transcended. His siblings had not given him sign of life, though. Respecting their wish not to be associated with him any longer, he hadn't tried to contact them. His life was in the hands of whoever gave him a purpose.

Flying through the atmosphere took only a few minutes before reaching the capital. He usually enjoyed landings, looking at the slivers of water growing into rivers and the mountain peaks disappearing into layers of white clouds. But not this time. He needed to get Kim out of his head.

"We are clear for landing," told Telenis in his atone voice.

The schematic showed the ship hovering over a wide flat-topped hill, and slowly lowered itself into an opening iris in the ground. Ikar got out of his seat, feeling the slight tension between his shoulder blades where scar tissue had replaced some of his nerves.

"Going somewhere, Ikar?" Pelak barked at him. He hadn't actually shouted but his tone suggested otherwise. He didn't want to have another confrontation.

"I'm going to say goodbye."

They all sat in silence as he left the deck.

Walking back to his quarters he felt the familiar grip of emotional numbness in his ribcage. The few seconds preceding the door seemed to last forever. He was meant to live the rest of his life like this. So many times he had tried to end himself, provoking danger and putting his skin up for cheap risks. But that kind of death wouldn't result in transcendence. His memory would be erased and his name banished from all mouths. In order to reach higher planes of being, he needed to find completion.

He needed it desperately now that he had to let go of what he thought was the answer to his unspoken prayers.

"Kim?" he called when he looked around his apartment. He knew she couldn't be anywhere else but he had to announce himself for the sake of politeness. Humans took great pride in their manners and how they appeared to each other. "We've arrived."

She was sitting in her human attire, with the full body-fitted suit and the big transparent helmet in her hands. Sitting on the edge of her bed, she raised a tired face at him. Even then, he found that her beauty surpassed all of the darkness that she constantly battled with. Hesitantly entering her room, he wanted nothing more but to touch her face, run his fingers through her silky black hair and smell her scent again.

"Okay," she said, docile, and got up.

Pushing the physical thoughts out of his mind, Ikar lead her down the corridors, hoping she wouldn't trip over an unexpected gap that she couldn't see. There was plenty of light for him, having the ability to see more colors than humans, but for Kim it was probably all very dark and grim. The idea of holding her hand crept in his head but he waved it away. From his past observation of the last thirty days, he'd known that she refused to depend on anyone.

Arriving at the fork between the airlock and the elevator, he paused but merely for a second. He chose to take the elevator. It took them a bit more than a floor up, and the sole corridor climbed to a unique room that he had meant to show her for some time now. Ikar opened the hatch and stepped out.

"What...? Oh, wow."

It was night time but the view was still something not to miss. Ikar looked at a gaping-mouthed Kim, amazed at the sight of Esharra under a blanket of stars and moons. Along the horizon, they could see the flat formations of mountains and hill, with circular landing pads and straight roads crossing the green valleys in-between. It was a particularly clear and warm night, and if they were really quiet they could hear birdsong in the close distance.

"So this is Esharra?"

"Yes."

She walked across the observation room, probably trying to understand how they could possibly see through such a wide canopy and still be aboard a space ship. A simple optical illusion and holograms made it seem like they were standing on top of a mountain and not in the confines of a craft, in a bunker. Her sense of wonder was endearing, and her smile made his heart beat strong again.

"Where are your cities?" she asked. "I see roads but I don't see any buildings."

"They're hidden underground," he said, pointing at the closest mounds. "Some of your structures are also made that way."

She nodded, turning to look at something else, avoiding him.

"Which one will you take me to?" Her voice had gone stern again; she was anxious about leaving the ship.

"We are already there," he said. "I just wanted you to see the valley from above."

Clutching the helmet in her arms, she looked overwhelmed at the thought of exploring this world. It would be her home, her Esharra from now on. She would grow old and hopefully transcend among the ones that had taught her ancestors how to master the elements.

Unless she would keep on feeling pain. As someone who constantly felt it through his body, Ikar could tell when someone was trying to hide being hurt, when emotions were trapped and their soul was tied down in the depths of despair. But she was a strong woman, for her size and what little she had seen of the world. When her crew had all found their ties she was the one left to wander by herself for hours if not days, and rarely anyone would call on her.

"How many other worlds can you live in?" she asked.

"Too many to say..." Ikar thought hard to remember why it wasn't so important to move from home or your ship. "The Anunnaki have been space-faring for millenniums, but we always remember Esharra."

"Any other humans like me, here?"

"No," he didn't want to disappoint her. "I have no idea what the council will decide for you."

Her constant reminder of belonging with other humans annoyed him at some point. From his observations when she was with them, she was never really with them.

"And you will have to leave the planet, is that what you said earlier?"

"Undoubtedly. That is my function in the fleet."

She nodded sharply, her jaw muscles tensing. "Any plans to do something else?"

He had, but any other kind of research required extensive teamwork and responsibilities that his status couldn't have access to.

"I like what I do," he eventually replied after thinking over his options.

"You killed innocent people today."

"No," Ikar retorted, wincing at the thought of her remembering what he'd done and he regretted that her opinion of him had changed. "They were ready, they knew we had no other choice."

They had begged him and Pelak to shoot them down. The parasitic worms were just about to burst through their rib cages before they could breathe their last wish. Death had been their last hope to find peace. The rest of the derelict crew had died from the attacks of the alien creatures, or flushed out of the airlock along with the intruders. Kim wasn't going to hear about this kind of stories before long.

"I don't know what to think about that," she said. "Everything is so unfamiliar. This ship, your world, your people, the way you think..." She looked at the helmet between her hands and let out an impatient sigh. "I think I'm ready to face your council. When are we meeting them?"

"It's still night time, we have time before dawn."

Ikar stepped towards the hatch and looked over at Kim, standing still and looking at the stars above. Was she looking for her home planet?

"How long has it been for my colony?" she asked. "How long have I been gone?"

It hadn't occurred to him that a certain time had passed since they left the beacon system and that people would be expecting her return there. They had gone across half the galaxy and in the two days they'd known each other, weeks, perhaps months had passed for Kim's people.

"I don't know the exact amount of time," he cautiously answered. "Thirty days, perhaps more."

He was better at words than numbers.

"Earth days?"

"Approximately."

"To be honest, I expected worse."

There was a long pause. She needed a moment to process it all: the one-way trip, being the only human there, never getting to see her friends again. But Ikar couldn't afford the risk of her getting lost in the ship if he left her alone.

"I was in love with a man," she suddenly said, "our mission leader. But he had modified genes that could be transmitted if we got intimate. He could almost live forever and heal from anything. There were others like him on Earth but... There was a change of government and they had to cancel their operations. They protected the environment and non-human life. Anyway... I loved his ideals and his sacrifice for the world. But I couldn't picture myself standing by him until the end of time."

Ikar slowly blinked his eyes, processing the new information as he begun to understand her ordeal. The reports and communications he had intercepted explained much about these secret operatives who fought against human-centric interests such as meat-eating or abusing ecosystems to fuel greedy machines. Kim stepped back near him.

"It would be comforting to let him know that I'm okay, even though I'll never come back."

The quiet resolve in her voice made his throat clench. He bowed his head to her in deep respect.

"We'll send a transmission," he assured.

To some extent, he wanted nothing more but for her to be happy even if it meant not seeing her again, if she was ever allowed to go back to her kind. Ikar knew that, even as an estranged and marginalized member of his species, he'd want to be able to come home after some time.

They slowly walked back inside the ship. In the main airlock the entire crew was there and they turned their cold gazes on Kim and Ikar. There was an awkward silence before Telenir spoke up, in a hesitant English.

"Good luck."

They exited out of the lowering hatch ramp, wearing their hoods over their heads. Ikar wasn't sure if they were talking to Kim or if those words concerned him as well.

"Not very chatty," said the woman.

"They are concerned with the time they have left before their next deployment. Being home is a privilege for us in the fleet." Especially for him, he added internally. "I would take you to the great halls now."

He hadn't seen the inside of the sacred gathering place in decades. Whenever he was summoned to see the council something had either gone wrong in his life, or he expected bad news. They were in charge of deciding what was to become of a being when freedom had to be taken from them. They walked by gigantic statues of the first star-travelers, the ancient stone-heads that reminded each visitors that they should honor their great heritage. Kim approached the sculptures and studied them in detail. She attempted to decipher the glyphs carved on them, stories that told their experiences and the important lessons to be learned from them.

"This is Uros," he calmly told. "He was the first traveler to explore the Rim worlds, bringing back alien life forms that we could study. From there my ancestors were able to develop genetic sequencing."

Eyes wide in amazement, Kim turned to him and let out a perplexed sigh.

"He looks so similar."

"We designed our own evolution thanks to his advances, instead of letting the chaos of the universe decide for us."

"Sounds a lot like you refused to be controlled by any superior power. We're the same... My own race." Kim continued walking down the hall. "Are all these statues representing a technological advancement?"

Ikar followed her after pausing to look at Kilu, the first pioneer in space ship engineering.

"Pretty much."

She laughed shortly. "You're picking up on my good English."

"Since you're the only person that I talk to, it was going to happen eventually."

"Well, I'm gonna need to write this all down to remember your history." She turned on her heels. "You probably know all of mine already."

It was an accurate assumption. From the time he'd been assigned to the Orion branch the priority for him had been Earth – or Eridu, "home in the faraway." He'd learned rudiments of Chinese, Hindu, Arabic, Spanish and English of course as it was the language of their multinational organization. Had he not been injured he would have simply boarded a flagship towards a conflict zone and tried his luck in battle against interstellar tyrants for three decades.

"I know the main lines, but no one really bothered to study Earth in the last millennium so recent sources of information were tough to get by. I made do with what I picked up from your space-faring communications. It wasn't easy to sort the factual from the fictional."

"Oh, you're talking about our entertainment?"

"You call them movies, is that right?"

Kim laughed through her nostrils, her face blushing with amusement for some reason.

"Are you saying that you watched all of our movies, too?"

He had clear recollection of artistically put-together scenes of drama, tragedy, or epic stories of wars in completely different universes... Then there were less serious settings and caricatures, also crude depictions of human coitus that clearly showed how different their species were in terms of physical ethics. That was probably the reason why Kim was acting embarrassed.

"I had time to study your culture. It was very confusing at first... Though I did enjoy the synthetic characters. Why were they intended for children? Those were smart."

"The animation movies? Yeah, I used to love those." She was evidently impressed with him. "Have you kept them somewhere?"

"Of course," he replied proudly. "Everything is on my computer station."

"I guess we could watch something some other time."

She continued walking beside him down the halls. Ikar enjoyed her company in this special moment of both nostalgia and adventurous excitement. The taste of risk crept back in his mouth as he noticed the changes in his physiology, of feelings he hadn't felt since his very young age.

"We're getting closer to the council chamber, Kim. It's time we introduced you to my people."

"Okay. Let's get this over with." She shrugged as she said that and Ikar smiled, more as a way to minimize his anguish than to reassure her. "What have I got to lose?"

"We will see."

He activated the sigils by the door that slid open to reveal a wide room filled with morning sunlight. There were no windows but through a simple play of reflecting mirrors and shafts everything was as bright as day. Ikar stepped forward with Kim at his side, looking at each of the elders standing in a circle, talking amongst each other in hushed tones. They all went silent when they spotted him and the human female.

"Revered members of the council," Ikar announced respectfully, "this is the human we've rescued from a magnetic storm on the beacon planet. Her name is Kim, she is an explorer and a mineralogist for her kind."

They slowly came closer around a visibly worried Kim who did her best not to shock them. One of the elders, his name was Zahili if he remembered well, spoke up.

"What did you learn from this female?"

Something made him swallow hard as he tried to answer the question. Ikar hoped it wouldn't be interpreted as doubt from his part.

"She is from Eridu. Her colony was devoted to ethical progress to evolve towards a better civilization. When I spoke to her I recognized the signs in her behavior that those changes were genuine."

Kim looked suspiciously at him, her eyebrows lowered. Ikar continued.

"She doesn't speak our language. May I have a moment to consult with her?"

"Yes, Ikar," said Utala, the female governor of the northern hemisphere on Esharra.

He took a breath and placed a hand on Kim's shoulder to get her attention, she was looking intently at Utala.

"Do you have anything to say to them?"

"Uh," she hesitated but turned around to face the council, "well, I'm honored to be here and I have a lot to learn about everything... I wish to spend more time with Ikar to learn your language and your customs. Also, I understand that I can never return to my people and I respect this rule."

Ikar translated as Kim stood obediently in the middle of Anunnaki men and women towering over her. One of them eventually extended a hand to feel the texture of her hair. It was Utala, running her long and thin fingers over Kim's head. She also touched her suit and tried to smell her.

"You may reside among us," Utala said, her voice becoming soft and kind. "Ikar will be your guardian and he will answer to your actions."

Feeling his heart bounce in his chest, Ikar bowed his head in gratitude before translating back to Kim. Utala gazed at him as he did so, her expression changing back to a stern, judgmental look.

"Are you still affected by your wounds, Ikar?"

"Yes, Elder Utala." He made eye-contact with her but found it hard to hold her gaze.

"You have been a sentinel for too long, child. It's time you came home to your family."

It was something in the air, or in her voice that recalled the old sorrows he'd first gone through. Ikar bit his lips to stop them from trembling.

"I have no family," he whispered, suddenly paying more attention to his feet.

A pale, aged hand gently lifted his chin up.

"You will look after this human, and for as long as she lives you will be her family. Now that she was brought here she has nothing left to live for. Do you understand?"

Ikar nodded, blinking away a tear brimming in his eyes. He saw Kim, staring at them with shock on her face.

"It won't be very long before the harvesters reach our borders," Utala added. "If she is dear to you then we will have to decide what to do with the rest of the humans. This colony you speak of must be protected."

"I understand," he finally replied.

"Go on now. I have arranged a habitat for you in the north. The fifty-seventh."

He bowed his head to her and the rest of the council. Kim did the same before turning around to walk after Ikar out to the halls. When the door shut behind them he looked at her.

"We've been granted a home to the north. Utala has instructed me to look after you..."

"Are you okay?" she asked worriedly.

"Yes. I'm grateful for this chance she has given us."

Barely holding himself together, he wanted nothing more but to squeeze her in his arms. Kim looked relieved, and eager to move forward.

"That means you don't have to board the next flight to the Rim worlds anytime soon." She stretched her lips into a smile. "And what did she say about me?"

"She believed me when I said you were different, and she will see that your colony will be under our protection."

"That's... more than anything I'd hoped for."

Ikar let out a short chuckle, recalling hours-long footage of human debates about government work and democracy. "We don't spend as much time discussing as humans do."

They made their way through the halls and reached ground-level. There, Ikar took a moment to recollect his thoughts.

"If I was rehabilitated as a dweller on this planet I should be able to get us a private transport."

"Is it necessary?"

"The north is half-way across the planet."

"I see, and I forgot my hiking shoes."

He recognized her humor but Ikar was too busy trying to locate the transport hangars. They went from hallway to hallway and he spotted a technician worker walking by. It was a male, as old as him, who was evidently surprised to see Kim.

"What is the meaning of this?" he interjected.

"Greetings," Ikar said, ignoring his reaction. "I was assigned to take this human to the northern hemisphere by Elder Utala. Could you help me find a transport?"

The tech hesitated for long seconds.

"Of course, I will assist you. Come with me."

"The structures have changed in the last century, haven't they?"

They walked back up their tracks as they were led to the hangar.

"Climatic restrictions," he explained. "The old hangar was flooded, we had to rebuild it entirely."

As they proceeded towards the new location Ikar could see that Kim was breathing heavily, trying to keep up with them. He held out his hand and she took it, looking up at him in gratitude.

"Slow down, friend," he told the tech. "We're not in a hurry."

"My apologies, I'm not accustomed to alien life forms."

"You don't have anything to worry about."

There were twelve transports lined up on the landing strip that faced the clear horizon. The binary stars were rising over the peaks of Erkla, the chain of mountains that led east and down the valley the most sparkling river fed the forests and plains to the north. Kim stood in contemplation of the landscape, her tiny silhouette bathing in light. A calm breeze made her black hair flow gracefully over her shoulders.

"Thank you," Ikar told their guide. "Have a good day."

The tech nodded sharply and left as fast as normal pacing allowed him. Hurriedly getting into a transport, Ikar shot another look at Kim as he got at the commands and saw her through the canopy. He activated the engines, hearing the familiar buzzing and rumbling sounds that accompanied the power-up. Kim looked up and searched for him.

"Over here," he called, waving at her.

She got to a jog and rushed towards the open hatch on the other side of the craft.

"Wow." She took the seat to his right, wide-eyed and amazed at everything. "This is so cool."

Ikar couldn't stop smiling, he had longed for this and he couldn't exactly put his finger on what he felt. But it was good and he didn't want to spoil the feeling with too much thought. The craft rose from its thrusters as they flew towards the sky and headed north. Kim was excited, the air was flowing into the cabin and soon the temperature began to drop. He pressed the control that shut the hatches and they were ready to burst through the distance. He just wanted to take his time and let Kim enjoy more of the view.

"Get ready," he warned, "we have a long way to go."

They braced for the push of atmospheric acceleration, and as they reached warp-speed, the landscape changed and it was suddenly more cloudy, frost began to form on the canopy and ice covered most of the plains.

"Oh my god," she murmured.

"What about your god?"

"It's just an old saying when we see something amazing. What happened?"

"We just warped through space and time."

She grinned. "Quantum mechanics. Awesome."

Ikar spotted the habitats with their small trails in the snow-covered grounds. Each house was built with its own underground structure and landing pads. As he approached the fifty-seventh, the twisting iris opened and the craft lowered into the dark hangar. He had the doors open which sent a chill down his spine, snowflakes got into the cabin as well.

The compound lit-up when he stepped down on the ramp leading to the house. It was made of local materials, stone for the most part, and glass for the more intricate details. Ikar never liked the edgy shapes of new interiors even though they reminded him of certain movies he'd watched where humans thought they knew what their future looked like in fictions.

"So this is where we'll live?" Kim asked, setting her helmet on the dark glass table in the entrance. "Not too bad."

"It's minimal," he said, opening the food dispensing machine. They would have to stock up in a few days. "I haven't lived planet-side in so long I forgot what it's like to have property."

He heard her walking from room to room, looking for every storage compartment.

"There are clothes here."

She pulled out a few outfits to set them on the bed nearby. They were far too large for her, until she found one that was nearly her size.

"That one's for children," Ikar said, looking at the dark gray robes, and the slimmer tunic that was intended for a female.

Kim brought the child's clothing against her breast to size it up on her. "How strange would it be if I wore this?"

Shaking his head, Ikar took it from her and stored everything back in the closet.

"I will get proper outfits for you later today." He felt a weight on his forearm and saw her dainty hand making him turn to face her. "What is it?"

"You don't have to cater to me for every single thing from now on, look..." She laid out the feminine garment on the bed again and scratched her scalp in thought. "I can probably fashion something stylish out of this with a few staples and thread. You got to let me have some control over my own stuff. And when I learn to speak Sanskrit I will help you with other things."

"Bhasa," he corrected. "That's our language."

"And when you teach me bhasa I'll manage by myself."

"I trust you will do just fine," he said and moved over to the curtain across the bed. When he pulled it open, they could see the white hills and forests of the north, flooding the room with a pale luminescence as the artificial light tuned out. "This display turns on when the drapes are moved."

"Amazing," she said, coming closer to look at it. "It's eerie. I had a wall-display a lot like this one in my quarters. And this view is so much like... Sweden."

She stepped back and sat on the bed, sighing. Ikar couldn't see much going on outside, there weren't many transports in the air either. Were people alerted of their arrival and decided to move from the area?

"We should have a look around," he told Kim, sitting beside her. "But you can rest here for a while."

He touched her back, hoping to relax her as she did look nervous and tired. Her brown eyes met his and for an instant he thought time had stopped, during which he imagined being married to her, having a family, making friends both Anunnaki and human, traveling the stars and sharing happy moments. But his visions crumbled as he found himself back in the present, sitting quietly with her in front of a winter view.

"Ikar..."

"Yes?" His heart jumped in his chest, hearing her say his name with a soft voice.

"Is this... another dimension? Am I even alive?"

"I know it may seem confusing but we're still on the same plane of existence. It's just more quiet out here than I remember. But you are still you, and I am still me." He looked at his hand and noticed with surprise that it was shaking slightly. "We will need time to adjust."

"Come," she said and rose to her feet. "Let's have a walk outside."


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Ikar was born and bred in the southern regions, and this cold weather was never his favorite, especially not during his training with the military. Wearing a thicker coat over his tunic, and actual boots to prevent sliding on patches of ice, he found that simply walking down the little paths a pleasant experience. Kim had taken the child's cloak to wear over her body-suit and she clung to his arm as they walked.

"Pardon me if I'm repeating myself," she said, "but this is so much like a Christmas postcard from Sweden. I visited there once and enjoyed it. I like the peace and calm."

"Long before my ancestors, there used to be huge cities on Esharra," Ikar told, making vapor clouds in front of him. "They invaded all of its surface and people had forgotten what a patch of dirt looked like. Then terraforming made its appearance and someone triggered a war. It destroyed everything and a lot of people died..."

They suddenly came to a halt as something moved the snow on their right, just behind a small hill next to the road. An antlered mammal jumped and leapt across the plain, having been startled by them.

"Was that... a deer?" Kim asked, smiling even though she seemed a little scared. "Sorry, you were talking about a war."

"It killed all of the wildlife, too." He looked at the bouncing point that the animal had become, rushing into hiding in the nearest bushes. "But the terraformers had stored all of Esharra's biosphere into a gene bank. They used it to repopulate everything. It took thousands of years to restore the planet's original state. They forbid anyone from landing on it for a long time... Until they disappeared, but their teachings remained. No more did the Anunnaki build cities on Esharra. We were space-bound for a while, then we came back."

"Building underground is the way to go," she agreed.

"For a limited development it's the ideal habitat. People here are retired from space-faring, they don't do much."

"You mentioned children... What do they do? Where are they?"

"They grew up."

A few seconds passed, and Kim punched his ribs as he chuckled.

"I knew you were funny."

"Ah, well there haven't been any natural births in ages. I don't recall knowing anyone trying to reproduce that way, we're all bred artificially on a mother ship. Couples who wish for a child need to apply for a selection and the criteria are very strict. There can only be one new child for every thousandth year or so. Because of our lifespan."

"What? How long do you live?"

He hesitated, perhaps he was telling too much too soon and it could frighten her.

"Our bodies start to wither after forty thousand years."

"Holy shit... That means, you're older than anything I've ever heard of, on my planet."

"Thanks, that makes me feel special." He was starting to grasp the concept of irony, and she was amused by it.

"Aren't there any markets, stores or other places people can gather to?"

"There are schools in the south, a training academy and a therapy center. What did you have in mind?"

"I want to see how people normally live around here."

He hid his hands in his pockets, looking for warmth as he mustered a reply.

"There's no such thing as normality, not in the way I experience things."

He couldn't say if it was his own generation or just himself who favored introspection as opposed to socializing and conforming with the majority. But no one had ever asked him to be something he wasn't, it was common decency to let the events in his life take their natural course.

Non-interfering behaviors, just like the houses were built in order not to disturb the wildlife.

"I will show you some of my family's history archive," he added after a thoughtful silence. "Once you become familiar with our language and customs we will visit the south, where I was raised."

"Are you still in touch with your folks?" Eyes to the ground, she spoke cautiously.

"They know that I still live, which is enough." Ikar gave her a calming caress on her shoulder. "Have you thought about what message to send back to your colony?"

"I haven't done my homework yet. Can't blame me for being overwhelmed right now, can you?"

"Of course not... I'll show you how to use the transmitter from the main console, that way you can record your message on your own terms."

And if she decided not to contact her people after all, it would be all the better. Ikar wasn't ready to trigger a diplomatic incident by interfering with humans.

They returned indoors to their newly acquired home, stomping off the snow from their shoes as they entered. It was nearly night time and while Ikar demonstrated how the computer system worked, Kim dug into a bowl of soup he'd programmed from the food processor. Eating silently she seemed to absorb his instructions with intense focus. He even got to slip a few words of his native tongue into the course. She struggled with the consonants but kept trying until speaking in the foreign language came naturally to her.

He taught her basic greetings and conversation sentences, making his explanations simple and straight-forward. From there, he began showing her the genealogy of his ancestors and the different types of dynasties emerging from Esharra. Reviewing the past made him slightly light-headed, as if he'd used a psychotropic substance for the occasion. Seeing the familiar faces reminded him of forgotten promises, old resentments and heartache. When he described his parents and his younger siblings he avoided as many details as possible to spare Kim the sight of him being emotive again. She did not ask to be further educated on his background which made him glad to move on to different topics.

Ikar went over the basic political structure of their government before explaining the social customs and rituals. Both aspect of the society went hand-in-hand, in the sense that individual rights and duties affected the community in every way.

"Most of our discussions are done through indirect messaging to allow for enough time to think things through," he said, explaining the unspoken conversation rules. "Decisions take time, but when we do meet to get things done, we always have answers."

"You probably never heard of the word stalling, then."

"I know what it means but I haven't noticed anyone stalling in order to get what they wanted."

"Since you do all of that thinking on your own," she pondered, "there's nothing you leave to neglect, not even the things you'd rather not think about?"

His family members came back to his mind like a cold breeze.

"I try not to let myself be overwhelmed by events that are out of my control."

She held his gaze with a calmness he hadn't suspected.

"When humans talk that way it's their own excuse to let awful things happen all over their planet. You do care about some things that make you feel helpless, don't you?"

"Of course, I do." He tried to understand where she was going with her questions. "Even though my choices are my own, someone else in my place would behave similarly. It's how we function given the time lapse between each decision we make. Humans with their short-term memory and their short lives have a lot more at stake."

"So, you're basically giving everyone an excuse not to do anything to right a wrong, because it's not their place to do it."

"No." Ikar caught himself shaking his head regretfully, feeling he had spoken too fast and sent the wrong impression. "No, that's not how it is. Control is about knowing the extent of one's actions. Causes and consequences, we're able to measure those things. You humans only think short-term. Sometimes, inaction is a form of control... You look disappointed."

"Sorry, I guess this conversation struck a chord in me," she said with her voice shaking. "You did say you wanted to help Earth and my people, back on that planet. So I'm a bit confused."

The only chance for her to save her homeworld was through his people, getting his help and wisdom. It wasn't a surprise that his talk of doing nothing made her hopes crumble.

"These circumstances are far different than what we are used to," he assured. "When the council has come to an agreement we will go to your world. You must learn patience."

"Ikar, I've been patient for my whole life." She held her face between her hands, watery eyes lost in the void ahead of her.

"And it shows," he replied. "We admire individuals with the courage to step away from the downfall of their species."

It was a matter worthy of study. Qualities such as courage and brutal change in lifestyle were symptoms of a fast evolving physiology, be it a consequence of trauma or exposure to a dangerous environment. He was curious to know what kind of mental conditioning Kim had gone through in order to build herself so resilient to sudden change and isolation from her peers.

"I need to rest," she said, with obvious tones of fatigue in her voice.

"You've done much for today," he agreed. "Let me get the bed ready for you."

As he got up and left into the hallway he noticed that she followed him, never leaving his side and helped him set up the sheets and blankets. He couldn't get around the idea of having her as his mate, however he was growing fond of her company. If she was to disappear the next day he couldn't predict how badly he'd react. If someone took her away and never told him what she had become...

"Would you tell me about the person you were in love with among your colony?" he asked her suddenly.

Kim, caught unawares, stopped in the middle of removing her suit with her eyes wide open.

"What do you want to know?"

"Did he know about your feelings for him?"

Feeling like an intruder in her mind, Ikar couldn't stop his thoughts and heart from racing in apprehension of her answer. He hoped she would shake her head and confirm that it was all in the past.

"He had... a pretty good idea, I think it was mutual." She sat on the bed, back turned towards him. "But it couldn't work. It would have been too difficult to manage."

"Because of his condition, is that what you said?"

"Everyone knew that he couldn't be near anyone, physically. That's what made it difficult so we agreed not to let the relationship grow past friendship."

She clenched her jaw after speaking, her breath becoming deeper and slower.

"I'm sorry to hear that," he said, realizing that he was telling a lie. "I told you that you could contact him again, and I will honor that promise."

"You're offering closure," she said. "That's very thoughtful of you. But maybe I'm not made to be in a relationship anyway, so it doesn't matter if people know whether I live or die."

He couldn't see her face from where he stood, her black hair was in the way. It was just as well that she couldn't see him either when he failed to retain his tears. That was why his kind never spoke for too long, or never spent too much time wondering about the what if. Kim wasn't crying when he looked at her, leaving the room; she just sat there looking numb. He stopped at the door frame.

"Do you mean that you no longer wish to contact him?"

She furrowed her brow before giving him an answer.

"It wouldn't serve a purpose unless I actually showed up to get back in the colony. But I know now that my place is more useful here."

"Kim..." He took a breath, praying that he wasn't going to make another mistake. "I had intended for you to sleep by yourself tonight, but now I need to ask if you would share this bed with me."

Looking over her shoulder she seemed to measure the size of the bed before facing him, hesitant.

"I worry that something might happen then," she confided. "No offense, I do find you... attractive, it's just not what's good for me right now."

"That is your choice and I will respect it." Ikar took a step closer, and knelt down to get to eye-level with her. "My offer still stands, if you change your mind about just having company while sleeping."

"Is that why you are insisting?"

"I only want to make my intentions clear," he said, feeling flattered that she found him attractive. "You can sleep soundly beside me and I'd feel better knowing that you wouldn't be alone tonight."

She took a few seconds worth of thinking.

"That sounds appealing, actually."

A single hand gently pressed on her shoulder was enough to end the conversation and made her smile. He needed to be as strong as she was and not try to go further. Ikar had read about Anunnaki who had found mates among humans, there being stated that humans easily let themselves be ravished physically, even knowingly by aliens. This resulted every time in deep trauma, not to mention their hybrid offspring vowed to a life of inadequacy and sorrow.

The night passed uneventful and he remembered seeing her sleeping form every time he'd adjust positions due to his bad back. Her presence was soothing, even if she made almost no sound and moved very little. He was up first in the morning, lying idly for a moment and seeing Kim at his side. One of her feet brushed against his when she turned in her sleep. He needed to get up before his mind would go to places he couldn't escape unless he crossed a forbidden line. He showered thoroughly, cleaning his body and mind in order to start the day feeling optimistic, like having someone to care for turned him into a new man. He prepared food, aware that this was the second breakfast he'd share with Kim and for the first time in years he had found his appetite. She needed to wake up because he was hungry.

She lied on her stomach, hands beneath her pillow and her face turning the other way.

"Kim?" he called, approaching slowly. "Are you awake?"

And she turned to see him, moving hair out of her face and this time she didn't look shocked or afraid.

"Morning," she whispered.

He smiled back at her, feeling warmth spreading up from his stomach. She got up and he stepped back to give her some room. Kim looked up at him, scratching her head as she yawned.

"Did I snore last night? I think I do, sometimes."

"Absolutely not." He had to refrain from looking at her for too long because she would blush. "I'll be waiting to eat breakfast with you. I put up fresh towels in the washroom."

"I could get used to this," she said, disappearing into the shower. He could see her shadow removing clothes piece by piece as water poured down. "Anything planned for today?"

"We have to restock on supplies and study the Grays..." All that Ikar wanted then was right there, in that room and he wished she would want to stay in. "After that, we can do whatever you want."

"Sounds fine."

He caught himself idly waiting on the bed for her to come out. Changing into his casual attire of black tunic and trousers, Kim arrived, a simple black towel wrapped around her wet body. She had another towel tightly wound around her head as well. There was a second of mutual shock as they stared each other down, him crouching topless next to the clothing drawers and amazed by her nearly naked form.

"I—" she began to say, "I should get dressed too."

Ikar pulled a shirt and tunic from the closet and averted his eyes, hurriedly moving out of the room. The situation was uncomfortable and he blamed himself for almost intentionally provoking it. What was he hoping? That Kim would all of the sudden throw herself in his bare arms?

They met again in the kitchen and he was nearly done eating when she smiled at him embarrassingly. Her gaze lingered on his body as if noticing him for the first time.

Ignore it, he heard his common sense taking over.

"I can retrieve the supplies myself while you wait here," he suggested, placing the empty bowls and plates in the washer. "Showing yourself with me in the busier parts of Esharra may not be a good idea for now."

She softly replied. "I understand."

Another silence, he thought something was going to explode if he kept it going for too long.

"But it may be the best thing to do before rumors begin to spread." Ikar sighed with relief, and grabbed her hand across the table. "I'm sorry if I seem to think out loud."

"That's another quirk you're picking up from me," Kim said. She looked at their hands together. "You're trying to tell me something else, too."

He was, and they would have to wait before he could cross that specific line. He pulled his hand away and smiled respectfully in lieu of a reply.

"I don't mind knowing what you think," she continued, crossing her arms on the kitchen table. Sat on the high stool, she seemed almost as tall as a female of his species.

"Although certain things are better left unspoken."

"And actions matter more than words, right?"

She giggled, amused at her own thoughts. Ikar had no idea if he was the subject of her laughter.

"Words matter," he replied seriously. "That's how we know when to take action or not. You told me yesterday that you were afraid anything might happen between us if we slept together."

She ran a hand through her messy, humid hair and held her head to look at him shyly.

"I stand by what I said. Who knows what may happen today, and not knowing how our relationship will progress is really scary. A part of me is still... attached to my past. But when I see you, I feel like a totally different person."

Ikar furrowed his brow, wishing he had the answers to her pondering.

"It's hard to let go of what we think we are, for someone else. But yes, you're right; we're defined by our actions. We have no guarantee that either of our decisions are the right ones."

"Unless you do them for the good of someone else," she added to his reasoning.

He scrutinized her face.

"And are we in the best place to know what's good for them?"

"Maybe... if we get to know them really well?" She looked back at him, a mix of concern and kindness in her eyes. "Even then it's hard to be in that position. I can't do anything knowing it will affect someone's life in such a deep level."

"Neither would I," he said reassuringly. "There would have to be a mutual trust which takes time to build. I wouldn't have brought you to this place if I didn't know that you have what it takes to survive here. My mistake was not giving you a choice in doing so."

She squinted her eyes for an instant. Ikar continued.

"I know you could never forgive me for the way I've affected your life."

It explained why they were stuck in such an awkward moment. Their mutual attraction was blocked by the fact that Ikar was her abductor. They could never get passed that.

"By principle, no." Kim stretched her neck, thoughtful. "But how long has it been now? Four days? Since the moment I got on your ship you've been nothing but good to me. You didn't try to kill me me, you never insulted me despite the bad things my people did, and you didn't try to rape me last night. Willingly or not, you're not a bad person... Had you given me a choice I would have wanted to come here anyway."

Ikar didn't feel as relieved as he ought to.

"Now I should work on forgiving myself."

"Or maybe I'm too easy to take advantage of," she said, folding her arms tightly. "That's... the main issue with me, I guess."

Her lips had fallen into a scowl that she tried to hide with a hand.

"From what I've seen in you, there was never a moment when I thought you were too weak to fight back. The few times you let me get close, I feared that I would be in danger." He approached slowly to touch her shoulder, and when she looked up at him he resisted the urge to step back. "You'll do just fine in this galaxy, Kim."

It meant the world to him that she could find her smile again but he couldn't shake the urge to want more. He was older than her entire civilization and he was acting like a child. Cowering back into the lobby he tried to set his mind on the tasks at hand. The cabinet that served as an armory for the house was empty.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

Esharra had climates almost as varied as Earth's, which could explain why those people had been attracted to the blue planet in the first place. Kim kept her eyes wide open trying to absorb every little thing, a memorizing technique that really was her just being mind-boggled with amazement. They walked down the southern capital underground city of Irida, Ikar at her side in a long black coat while she tried to look dignified yet humble, with a tunic she'd thrown over her flight suit.

She did take notice of the strange looks coming their way. Anunnaki people wore clothing in shades of gray, rarely using bright colors as if those tones were too cheap for them who could see in the infra-red and the ultra-violet. Those who wore black uniforms were almost a rare kind, and seldom did she see any other males built like Ikar. Many of them were taller however, but she hadn't taken deep enough interest in finding out which type of clothing referred to what specific career.

Irida was built hundreds of meters under the surface of Esharra. It looked like a typical active technological city in perpetual night time. Certain districts were brightly lit, most of them used minimal energy for visibility. When Ikar brought her into a large building she was under the impression that anybody could go anywhere without being prompted for ID or to pay an entrance ticket. There was no security detail in the military surplus store, and no cashier. Just more people visiting, taking things or depositing some. Kim watched her friend review a crate of ammunition with a datapad borrowed from the front desk. Then he moved to the back of the store where a male Anunnaki handled rifle-like weapons, making them ready for customers.

"Is there a war coming?" she quietly asked Ikar.

"No, this is only precaution." He walked up to the counter and the other man opened shocked black eyes at him. " _Uran_."

The other said something in Sanskrit that Kim hadn't yet learned, then they clasped forearms and hugged shoulder-to-shoulder with a deep, manly laugh. She seemed to understand what they said next, her imagination filling in the gaps of her language skills.

"How have you been, friend?" asked Ikar, keeping his grin contained and stern.

"Times have been long since you deployed." The one called Uran laid his eyes upon Kim. "Your wife?"

Ikar took a breath and looked at her, apologetic.

"This is Kim. She is under my protection while we gather knowledge on the Grays. Her world was taken recently."

"Hello," she said in her best rendition of their native tongue, bowing her head shortly.

Uran smiled nervously and faced Ikar again.

"She understands us?"

"I taught her the basics, Uran, and she is my friend. Whatever you say to me, you can say in front of her."

She wanted to smile proudly for being placed in such a trusted place, but for Ikar putting his honor out there for her probably represented a huge risk.

"Hello, Kim." Uran touched his chest solemnly, making a point of impressing her with his muscle mass. "I looked up to Ikar in my youth, and I manage weapons for people like him in the service. Would you like to see what we can do in a duel?"

"Uran, please..."

"What's going on?" she asked, looking at a worried Ikar. Kim switched back to English. "What did he say?"

He let his shoulders drop and smiled sarcastically. "Uran and I used to spar with blades as a recreational sport."

"Oh, no."

"He told you about it, now we're bound by honor to follow up on his word."

Kim followed them into a very big back room, Ikar not looking very eager to get into action but she could sense that the excitement was rising between the two. They appeared a moment later, in the middle of a wide circle surrounded by seats and she took place on a high bench. Both wielded some kind of spear, and both had taken their tunics off, revealing their bare chests. Uran didn't even make a double-take at the sight of Ikar's old injury.

"You remember the rules?" Uran asked, holding his spear across his lap, grinning mischievously. He said something like a recall of said rules, but she didn't understand the words.

"I still have my memory," said Ikar, standing a little loose and clutching his weapon single-handed. "I'm ready."

Uran was a head taller than him, looking more healthy and energetic. Kim watched the sparring begin hoping it wouldn't last very long, and that it would be all in good fun. Neither of them seemed to take it lightly though. Uran spun his blade-ended spear with blasting speed, and it turned out to be a flourish meant to impress.

Ikar blocked his first few attacks, pushing his opponent backward until Uran stepped out of the perimeter. They placed themselves back in the middle of the invisible circle, never letting each other out of their sight. Kim met Ikar's eyes for a second, hoping she wouldn't be a distraction in case Uran was preparing another offense.

"You are not as good as I remember," said Uran, turning slowly around him. "You're too slow."

Ikar gave him no reply, regaining the same unconventional stance as before. The sparring continued, and not nearly as slowly as Uran accused Ikar to be. He couldn't get passed Uran's defense and only managed to be drawn outside of the circle. Twice, three times. Kim couldn't sit there and watch him get bullied into such a brutal display, although leaving would be even worse.

Then there was a slicing sound. Uran held his spear vertically and leaped across the circle, landing with his double-bladed spear over Ikar who rolled aside at the last moment. He swept his boot across Uran's leg who fell over but spun his weapon which nearly hit Ikar in the head. Then he did something Kim did not expect. Ikar caught the spear from one end, too close to where the blade met the pole, forcing Uran up and at his reach. He grabbed his friend by the throat.

Kim gasped as she saw a trail of dark liquid run down Uran's neck. He clutched at Ikar's arm, knees and feet moving in panic and floating above ground. Was he going to kill him?

After a few long seconds, Uran heavily fell on his side, coughing and pushing himself up with difficulty. He looked up, and grabbed the hand Ikar offered to help him up. It was wet with dark blood.

Kim jumped down from her seat and hurried between them, hoping to put a stop to the duel if they intended to continue.

"It's good to have you back, friend." Uran nodded at Ikar, giving him a pat on the shoulder. "I hope we didn't scare your new companion."

"Kim..."

He faced her and she took his arm to inspect his hand. She didn't expect it to be as hard as she felt it, and he probably didn't think she would dare to touch him after such a fight.

"Oh shit," she commented in English. "Your hand is almost cut in half."

It was still bleeding profusely when he closed it up, shaking. Uran hurried through a hallway, and returned with a black box, and with a piece of linen wiped the blood that covered his neck and chest.

"Use this for a week," he said, handing the box over to her. "I will have the supplies shipped to your dwelling tomorrow."

In the container she found six black vials.

"Regenerative fluid," Ikar said, picking up the spear on the floor. Uran grabbed it for him and they exited the combat room. "We could stock up on more of these, Uran. I appreciate your help."

"If the council brought you here it must be that the woman needs good protection."

"She is stronger than she appears."

Ikar and her stayed in some sort of infirmary room where they sat together on supply crates as she wound up wrapping bandage around his right hand. The gel applied to his palm was fusing the skin back together and the fabric resembling gauze kept it all clean.

"I didn't know your blood was black," she said, looking at the stained sterilizing sponges on the floor. She secured the bandage by wrapping it around his wrist. "Is that too tight?"

Ikar flexed his fingers and wrist, giving her a kind smile. She looked back at him feeling trapped in a moment, knowing exactly how he was feeling even though she'd wanted him not to get his hand cut, and not to get into that pointless fight.

"Did this happen often?" she asked.

"Regularly, yes. I briefly tutored Uran in martial arts, that's why he wanted to show me that he had improved."

"What was the rule you talked about before starting?"

"No mercy." He looked into her eyes, then his face appeared concerned. "It only applies to combat situations. I don't want you to think that I was really going to kill him. Uran has... a lot of pride."

She watched him tentatively pressing his wound in deep thought.

"I thought you were going to back away and let him have his victory," she contemplated, "then you took a risk to put an end to the fight. Do you think he was going to harm you?"

"No, but I didn't know how far he would go to get to you if I failed at his challenge."

"You did it for me, then." She took his shirt and tunic set on a shelf behind her, and came back to help him get dressed. "Let's not run into more of your old friends from now on."

Instead of slipping into his clothes, he caught her wrists, keeping her far too close for her taste.

"Ikar," she protested with control in her voice. "Don't get carried away, your adrenaline is giving you crazy thoughts."

They were breathing into each other's faces when she waited, fear creeping up alarmingly in her stomach as she felt his strength. He slowly let her go, shutting his eyes tight. But she felt his left hand resting on her hip. Kim didn't want anything to happen between them, not there. Not like this. She cupped her hands around his face to make him listen. But she needed to get over the fact that his skin was made differently and he was much stronger than anyone she'd known. His completely black eyes pierced into her soul.

"You're part of my life," she whispered. "And I'm not going anywhere."

"I- I know." It was the first time she heard him stutter. The pain in his face was unbearable. "I wish you would let me show you what I feel."

"You don't have to," she managed to say without sobbing, she caressed his face for comfort. "Not here, anyway. Wait until we get home."

Even if no one was watching, she recollected the fact that this alien world was unknown to her. When the Anunnaki easily viewed her as a person, she still had a hard time accepting her own value in a world where everyone was older and wiser than anything she knew. Her instincts told her not to feel safe. The last time she had felt that way, Jonas had been the one holding her hands.

"No," Ikar protested, directing her hands down on his chest. He ran his fingers through her hair, drawing her closer. "I have seen humans kiss and I would like to know how it feels."

"And the Anunnaki don't?"

Eyes locked into hers he shook his head. All kinds of mixed feelings crossed her mind as she decided whether or not she would allow him to kiss her. All the while she had her hands on his body, having accepted him as her protector and... friend? His pleading expression became resigned.

"Perhaps you, Kim, are more compatible with my culture than I expected," he said.

Feeling her throat lock, she fought against the memories of all the times she had wanted but never dared, or never allowed herself to simply let anyone show her affection. Was it really because she didn't identify with human nature?

 _Stay in control_ , she heard herself think.

"For the wrong reasons, maybe."

When she had woken up earlier that morning, it was still night time. And in the darkness of their room she could see the paleness of his skin, his head resting on the pillow across the bed, his eyes shut and he was breathing calmly, asleep and in peace. Kim realized suddenly how absurd it was that she hadn't slept in his arms.

Ikar took his shirt, pulled it over his head and stretched his back, getting dressed with difficulty but she helped him as best as she could. They couldn't leave yet. She understood that fact as she was reminded of his injured back. The fight had probably taken everything he had, evidently he needed to rest for a while.

"Didn't Uran know that you weren't at a hundred percent?" she asked worriedly.

"He did," Ikar said, his voice bitter and a little deeper now. "He had known about my accident for a long time, now I can manage the pain. It's also keeping me vigilant."

"I know you didn't mean to impress anyone but I wish you hadn't accepted that challenge. If something worse had happened I would have lost my shit."

"I did want to impress you at first," he said. "I'm sorry that I scared you."

"Next time you have to risk your life, I want you to discuss it with me first. Even if there's a war, we have to find a safer option."

He nodded, blinking his kind eyes to her.

"Are you suggesting that you become _my_  protector?"

"Someone has to look out for you."

As he towered over her when he stood up, she realized the absurdity of what she meant. Still, she knew that no amount of physical strength could save a man from his own pride. Turning around she lead the way out, eager to discover more of the city with her new-found confidence. Ikar followed obediently, carrying the box of healing capsules and his coat on the other arm.  _She was more Anunnaki than he had expected._  She took a solemn breath through her nostrils, stepping out on the streets of Esharra. There were many pedestrians standing around, looking at her with blank, pale faces.

Kim took another breath, mustering her best  _bhasa_  enunciation she greeted them, introducing herself as a visitor from Earth –  _Eridu_.

A pause, maybe as long as a couple of heart beats, and they scattered like nothing happened.

"Now they know who you are," told Ikar over her shoulder, "they will make their minds about how to interact with you in the future."

"I know I shouldn't worry about it. I care more about what I can do to help my people from here."

"That would be the council's call. While waiting for their response to your plea I will help you gather all I know about the Grays."

* * *

HK-427

Three and a half months had passed since the colony last had a geologist to help build the base. Studying the diagrams and blueprints only sufficed for the basic configuration of the compound, but people changed. Families grew apart and sometimes needed more housing. A group of them suggested branching out and settling in a second base.

Hiking along the mountain trail to the east, Jonas kept looking over his shoulder, checking that the colonial base was still in sight every hundred paces. Protected by his full body armor, he only barely felt the cold winter breeze which at this altitude would have sent an under-equipped hiker into hypothermia. The next few kilometers ahead of him were nothing but rocky terrain, pikes and crevasses. No proper setting for a residential area, confirming all of the maps he had presented the payload at the moment of their request. They couldn't afford either the resources or the manpower to administrate a secondary colony.

But scouting for building prospects wasn't his goal for that day. Every rock formation, every cavern, hill and cliff had become familiar to him. The trial was still incomplete and he worked on mapping out more of the base's surroundings, determining where it was safe for people to go and how to deal with the environment.

The absence of wildlife worried him. The first weeks had been punctuated with furtive sightings of grazing mammals, and of course the amphibious predators in the river were still there. Jonas suspected their camp was creating too much disturbance for the animals. Or maybe the cold climate was reason for them to go into hibernation. He felt lucky to spot a few birds in the sky. Despite all of their efforts not to affect the biosphere and not to replicate the errors of past human civilizations, fatalistic conclusions hit him.

Maybe humans weren't supposed to survive as a species, not without destroying the others.

He met with the marines down in the canyon leading away from the colonial base. The river ran shallow for hundreds of meters south from the improvised headquarters, flooding the shelter every three to four weeks, depending on the moon cycles and weather conditions.

"Morning, boss."

Jonas unloaded his backpack into one of the open crates. Battery packs, ammunition, ration packs. He looked at Gina, then Leo and Vick, all of them preparing circular casings with basic electronic circuitry. Vick looked at the additional gear.

"What happened to the exploding component of a warhead?"

He tossed a protein bar to each of them then took a seat on a closed crate, joining them for lunch. Removing his helmet he felt the icy air sting his face.

"With more intel on these Grays I'm sure we could find a more simple alternative to using dirty bombs."

"Yeah," Leo agreed, "we can try sneezing at them first."

The alien race had only been just a ghostly threat to their colony, but to all of mankind it was its only destroyer. Jonas almost thought it to be a blessing for how it could reverse the damage that humans had done to Earth. The planet was conquered, its population subdued by a psychologically superior species and not Jonas nor the Marines were ready to be dominated without a fight.

He hoped this planet held more secrets, keys to unlock better knowledge, to gain some advance on their enemy. The pilot spoke again.

"The ship can withstand a journey back home, we have everything we need."

Leo's stare was fixed on him, but Jonas didn't have to express again why they disagreed. They couldn't abandon the colony, leaving them as defenseless prey to alien abductors.

It had been three and a half months since he'd seen Kim for the last time. He was used to the idea of no longer hearing her mentioned in conversations.

"When we're done exploring 427 we'll see if returning to Earth is a priority." Activating his gauntlet-mounted computer, Jonas clenched his jaw. "This is our home."

They gave him nothing but silence as he watched his infra-sonic scanner mapping their immediate surroundings. The air did not condense to vapor as he breathed, reminding him of the low oxygen levels, yet his adaptive DNA permitted him to survive. Without his genes there could have been no vaccine to allow for the entire colony to breathe as well.

The projected map was done when he'd finished day-dreaming about the first days after they had landed. According to the depth scan, the Marines positioned on the marked trail had actually taken shelter near the entrance of an underground river. Jonas couldn't figure out where it lead down to beyond a hundred meters, having reached the scanning range.

Boots crunching into the icy snow, Vick walked to peer over his shoulder.

"Looks like I'm up for some more speleology."

He had been the Marine who discovered the first beacon-stone, accidentally falling on it in a cave, months ago. The two other stones had been detected by drones and no one dared to dig them up.

"This time, you're not going alone."

It was the perfect excuse for the team to stretch their legs. Jonas had to decide for someone to stay at the camp in case they lost radio contact with the base, and that person had to be Leo.

"I know," the pilot nodded, resigned. "That'll teach me to rant about leaving with the ship."

"We'll get back to you in an hour," Jonas told him to be reassuring, but they all knew the protocol.

Once synchronized with video and audio links for archive recording, Jonas lead the patrol down the natural trail. Expectedly, the frozen river branched out in several directions but also digging a huge cavity in the ground.

When Gina approached it, she could have lifted her arms and jumped without touching the ceiling. She was a tall, Canadian-bred woman of Dominican descent. Vick was shorter, on the other hand.

"Too easy," he commented, consulting his own terrain scanner. "Barely any slopes ahead. This is a walk in the park."

"Be nice, Baby Bear. He probably never had the time to visit a park on Earth."

They laughed and Jonas knew what they were making fun of. He caught himself smiling, detached from the nostalgia of anything pleasurable he'd lived in those days. Advancing further into the dark tunnel, the four took cautious steps in the hardened soil. Their assault rifles ready with activated lamps, the mood was confidant bordering on carefree.

"That's three hundred meters in," said Vick, "and fifty below the surface."

Jonas lowered his flashlight to let his eyes settle in the darkness. He barely felt the cold, perhaps due to the walking or the adrenaline.

"Six hundred meters. Guys... woah."

They came to a stop and gathered around Vick. Their light beams crossed and his helmet lamp, directed to his map was illuminating a cloud of vapor. They were all blowing it into a bigger cloud.

"Oxygen level?"

Jonas had the new readings within his HUD. No one could see his face nor could he see his own breath now.

"Twenty percent oxygen since the passed minute," he replied. "Temperature rising, too."

Gina shot a look ahead, towards the decline.

"Are we close to a volcano or something?"

"Oxygen doesn't come from volcano, you silly," Vick retorted without humor in his voice.

Jonas gathered his wits and activated his infra-red detector for biological traces.

"Let's keep moving."

The tunnel, still large and rather steady in its descent, came too a stall and widened dramatically.

"Two and a half klicks from the entrance." Vick turned around, looking upward. "Are you fucking kidding me?"

Their steps echoed as well as their voices in the cavern. There was a high ceiling, and obviously some bio-luminescence if Jonas was able to see the walls and cracks in the rock without image enhancement.

"So, what the hell is this?" shot out Gina, yanking a thumb over her shoulder.

It looked like nothing but it was ominously sitting in front of them. Perhaps wide like a baseball field, and high as a five-story building. Jonas thought about an incomplete French pastry if it was made of dirt and metal allow.

"We're not leaving here in an hour, are we?" she added, thinking out loud. "Vick, you do the honors of touching and doing nasty things to it?"

The young man chuckled loudly, walking sideways to record as much as possible into his scanner.

Jonas attempted to reach the  _Archimedes_ , preparing a live feed. There was a crackle in his audio link and a positive green confirmation message popped up. The ship's crew would be able to see what was going on down there.

"We have surface contact," he notified the other two. "Vick?"

"Sending coordinates back for reinforcements," confirmed the young man. "This is one hell of a walkie-talkie. Kind of shaped like an ear-piece, if you think about it."

Gina directed her flashlight to his face.

"It's also shaped like a rolled up cock."

"Alright," Jonas interrupted, having found a way into the curvy structure. "Gear and weapons check."

With deliberate, arching curbs and seemingly consistent proportions, the enormous object was nothing like a natural mineral formation. This was alien technology that they were about to explore.

"All good," Gina replied.

Taking a step forward, Jonas felt the old rush of excitement through his body, and his mind felt clear. The opening on the inside of the curving C-structure was large enough to fit a module-assembling mech, and grim, organic darkness surrounded them. His bio-scanner went haywire with error readings until he decided to turn it off, resorting to a basic motion detector instead.

They were no longer in their own home.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

He had lost track of time. Being on Esharra again, surrounded by his peers, breathing an atmosphere filled with familiar smells. And walking, almost aimlessly, to show the sights to Kim. He knew he was smiling uncontrollably when he saw her expression of amazement. The dimensions of Irida could fit a dozen flagships, because at one given time an entire fleet had been built there.

Heat was redirected from nearby geothermal sources, while light was produced chemically thanks to bio-luminescent fungi. The strongest and most dense cultures could give the darkest caves the light of day. No energy source was necessary. No natural material had been harvested. The buildings were grown from organic-mineral blends, structures using biological bi-products and living waste.

As he'd explained how everything was made, Kim's curiosity grew more and more. She ended up leading them and he'd follow, describing away at whatever caught her interest.

They were in the communal gardens. Deep green grass and moss carpeted the entire floor where tress of all origins stood in the damp, hot micro-climate. Some of the trees would bear fruit, and she approached them visibly tempted to touch an orange one.

"Is this what I think it is?"

There was a female not far, picking different fruits and herbs, then she turned her attention towards them when she heard Kim's foreign voice. Ikar walked up to his Human friend, making a point of controlling the situation.

"We use those for cooking," he said. "Your people enjoy drinking its nectar, but we find it better suits our taste on salty meals."

He picked the orange and gave it to her. It was small but ripe enough for eating.

"It's a clementine," she said. "Can we just take what we want?"

The female arrived towards them, shot a scornful glance at Kim before addressing Ikar directly.

"I am Neli and I've never seen you before." She was holding her woven basket protectively. Ikar thought she must have been no older than a few thousand years. "What brings you and your creature here?"

"I am Ikar," he responded with cordiality. "And this is my friend, Kim. We are gathering food for our dwelling in the north."

Young Anunnaki were supposed to learn of all of their historical passed, their own ancestors as well as their neighbors'. He didn't want to give Neli a lecture after having recited his passed to Kim the day before, but perhaps a little reminder couldn't hurt.

"We are here by order of the council," he added. "Governor Utala has granted us a permanent stay."

"I am Utala's grand daughter," said Neli. "Why did you bring a Human in our sanctuary?"

He needed to keep his hands in check before mustering a reply. Kim, when he looked at her, was arching a worried brow as she noticed his contained anger.

"I'm sorry," she pleaded to the female, and hesitatingly handed her the fruit she had picked.

Ikar didn't know how much she really understood of their language, but he clearly didn't remember teaching her the word for parasite. Neli took a solemn step backward.

"You must follow me to the justice assembly," she declared. "Now, before it corrupts everything."

They had no choice. Ikar wished he had been Human, as he'd seen in the theatric renditions of historical rebels, intrepid and courageous individuals who fought against authority. They walked towards the Irida Halls. His heart protested with every beat, and he fought not to let his sorrow turn into tears.

 _Kim, it will be all right_ , he thought. And he wished to be in an imperfect society where imperfect people had a chance to thrive and rise above the injustice.

He'd been made perfect, in the image of a perfect being among the best of all beings.

They were hundred thousands of years old, all together in a wide semi-circle, standing in the Justice Hall. They had never seen anything like Kim before and their expressions were that of fear, contempt, but also fascination. Then the fascination turned the wrinkled faces into awe and...

Was it hope?

Kim began to slightly tremble in fear. Ikar heard her pulse accelerate. He caught one of her hands, silently trying to comfort her and was shocked by its lack of heat. She was terrified.

Nothing was said.

Three guards, Anunnaki in the prime of their strength and dressed in armor, circled him and his friend. Ikar shouted something as they'd grabbed him by the arms while the third took Kim. She screamed back, her wide eyes desperately seeking his help. She was no match for the guard as he dragged her off the floor and into a dark hallway. His name echoed as she screamed one last time.

Ikar yelled at the top of his lungs, tears flooding his face as he tried to release an arm. What he felt could only be expressed through one word, in the language he'd learned to love and use as his own.

"No."

The pain in his abdomen cut his breath short and made him curl over himself. They'd hit him with the dull end of a lance. And when he was down, they beat him until he would go silent.

These were not the people he'd known and learned from. These people were the builders, the students, the engineers. Their dream was to grow the perfect being. One that was able to create life by itself.

Ikar stood up, ignoring the injury in his stomach, blinded by a green light in his face. He was being scanned for foreign bacteria. They'd taken all of his clothes and he recognized the room he was in to be a laboratory. It was operated via remote controlled machinery so that the subject could not attack its captor. He'd been in one before, and he'd used one on other people before.

"Have you copulated with the female subspecies?" asked a disembodied voice.

He shot a glance behind him, looking for the one-way glass, or distance observation image recorder. The question was an outrage.

"Of course not," he shot out. "Where did you take her?"

"You will soon be reunited. She is being studied for testing. Her genetic material is being harvested."

Ikar felt the strength escape from him as he fell to his knees, and he sniffled loudly, moaning with despair. What had he done?

"You have sustained trauma and are forbidden to transfer your genetic heritage. Ikar, as a veteran naval officer, you are permitted to exist and wander Esharra. But we do not permit you to attempt natural reproduction with a fertile female." The voice paused. "Your seminal ducts are to be removed."

A pair of bio-mechanical arms extended from the roof and a sharp prod pointed towards him. Ikar wouldn't stand up again, they would have to torture him.

"Will you let me be with her?" he begged.

The prod had a white light at its pointy end. He eyed it as if it was a living entity.

"Yes."

They didn't lie, so he believed them.

When he woke up, lying on his back and staring at a dark ceiling, a sheet of cell-regenerative gel was placed upon his mid-section. He saw that the bandage around his hand was removed and nothing was left of the cut. Not even a scar. Ikar tried to sit up but the pain, stinging and burning, made him give up. He rolled his head to one side as he heard the slow breath of a small body.

"Kim," he called, but his voice was only a whisper. Had he screamed so much that he'd damaged his vocal chords? He tried again, louder and raspier. "Kim."

Her hair had been flattened back and around her face as she lay a few steps from his table. He saw with anger that they didn't bother to cover her body with even a piece of fabric. On her pale yellowish skin, he noticed tiny red marks on her arms, her breasts and legs where samples had been taken. Ikar pulled himself off the rigid cot, wincing and groaning at the pain of the crude procedure in his groin, and stepped unsteadily towards the sleeping woman.

He grabbed her hand, feeling terrible for laying his eyes upon her without her consent, and began stroking her hair and forehead. She'd been treated with an antiseptic fluid, making her skin glisten slightly, and she smelled different. The sample mark on her breasts wasn't scarred yet, letting blood stream down a thin red line into her armpit. Perhaps the reason why they didn't heal her was to observe how fast she would regenerate her tissues.

Coughing, she was conscious again and her eyes rapidly searched around. Kim gasped and startled up at the sight of him.

"Do you remember me?" he worriedly murmured, wondering if she'd suddenly forgotten all about him. "Kim, I'm Ikar."

Gaping her mouth, she panicked as she realized being naked and in an unfamiliar place.

"I- I blacked out, I don't know when." She sat up and wrapped her arms around her breasts, bringing her knees up together. "It hurts... Fuck!"

Ikar caught her tightly against him. What could he do? If he said anything he wouldn't know how to comfort her. If he lied to her she wouldn't know exactly what was going on. But she accepted his embrace, and soon her face was warm with tears and anger as she looked down where she laid a second ago. Following her gaze, he found the puddle of sticky, dark red blood coming from under her. He had only one thing on his mind.

"We have to get out of here. Can you move?"

Kim wimpered as she tried to calm herself but it wasn't until she took a deep breath and sighed that she nodded and tried to get up from the table. It was an operation table. She was in too much pain to get off from it in a standing posture.

Ikar picked Kim up from the floor and she cried, visibly hurting, and walked toward the only hatch door in the room. It opened as soon as they approached, as if inviting them outside. Kim was light in his arms, but not knowing where to go, and trying to be cautious with his own wounds made him rapidly lose strength. He took a right turn in the tubular hallways, then a left when he met a locked door. He felt warm fluid dripping on his stomach and he fought to wave it out of his mind.

They did not care for outcasts. They wanted them to die somehow, maybe of an infection or by bleeding slowly.

He walked faster towards a larger hall with more light in it, hoping he'd find a transport, idealy some clothing and some healing vials. How he would treat Kim for her internal damage was another problem entirely.

"Are we lost?" Kim's voice had gone weaker, he could barely hear it.

What he found in the large room was better than he expected: four regenerative vats. He had them on his ship, and they were standard issued in all treatment facilities. Kim had been in one before, he knew it because he'd forced her into one the first day they'd met. He hadn't a clue of how her biology worked at the time.

Without waiting, Ikar put a foot inside the closest basin and very carefully lifted his other knee to sit inside it. He couldn't afford to slip and fall. He released one arm to steady himself with the edge of the vat, and Kim let out a painful complaint, still clutching around his neck while she slid down into the yellow gel with him. The substance was neither hot nor cold and Ikar rested his back against the edge to prevent it from sealing itself shut over them.

The pain was still there, even as he'd stopped moving and positioned himself to avoid friction. Kim looked at him with wide eyes.

"They hurt you, too," she uttered bitterly. "I heard you screaming."

He realized she was in a risky position over him if she was to ever move her knees to the wrong spot. They shouldn't have shared a vat, the gel was supposed to treat one patient at a time so as not to mix infectious bacteria and give adequate care to each individual.

She was a subspecies but they still had a common genome, give or take a few chromosomes. Kim and himself would have been able to sire children if not for what had just happened to them. Surprised that he'd feel so detached about it now he'd forgotten that they were both naked and sharing warmth in a bath of healing fluid.

"We should stay here until fully healed," he suggested. "Then we will have to leave."

"What if they have us locked up?"

"They can't, not as long as I still have my rank." He looked around, seeing no activity around, and hearing nothing but the low hum of the air recycling. "They took my ability to produce seed."

He preferred to get the topic out of the way. In shock, Kim didn't change her expression of dire sorrow.

"I think the same thing happened to me," she replied heavily before her face crunched up and she sobbed. "They didn't say a thing."

What he imagined that she'd been through, according to her reaction, was far worse than what he endured. If something had been extracted from her, he didn't see any incision and that left only one way to get to the reproductive organs.

Regardless of who or what had done the act, to a female that could only be synonymous to molestation.

Furious, boiling with hatred, he brought her closer and squeezed her tightly in his arms. He couldn't let this happen and not react, without protest. Utala would have known if her family was involved in capturing Kim for testing. Were they going to make hybrids again? What kind of monsters would result in that now?

A delicate hand went around his arm to tap it and he abruptly noticed he'd been holding Kim too tight. Pushing herself up from him she moved away, sitting at the other end of the tub, her watery eyes wary of his body.

"We'll soon be away from here," he assured, planning as he spoke. "Your place is with your people. I promise you, my kind won't do any more damage."

Escaping hadn't been a challenge when all guards and assembly participants had vanished. Finding new clothes for himself, and improvising a small robe for Kim, they quickly recovered their mobility thanks to the healing vats and made their way to the transport docks across Irida.

Back to their northern dwelling, the underground hangar had one of its corner occupied with three crates of ordnance and food supplies. Uran had honored his word and Ikar still held him in high respects. Would he ask for his assistance if more trouble were to come for Kim and himself? Probably not. His old friend would cave under the authority of the Elders, or anyone from a higher command. The common agreement was to get rid of the faulty elements in the collectivity. That was why he needed to run.

Kim made a point of trying to help him lift the crates onto the atmospheric transport but each box weighed at least three times as she, and Ikar secured all of them into the small cargo hold. Going back into the house, he accessed the terminal through his administrator code and erased all history markers of their activity. The surveillance had to be cleared as well, even though he would have cherished the memory of the time spent getting to know his new friend.

Observing at his side, Kim folded her arms together.

"What does Utala have to say about us leaving?" she asked with concern. "She wanted us to be here."

He regretted not having the time to think everything through. If Utala had insisted about Ikar having his own family on Esharra, she would receive his announcement negatively.

"She was hoping that we never leave," he corrected. "Let's not contact her."

After all, her grand daughter had been told about a lesser species wandering the planet. The orders had to have come down from elders, otherwise such a faulty communication would result in a war.

"If you really think disappearing is the safest option, then I'm right with you."

Kim grabbed a makeshift bag she'd tied together with a sheet, carrying linens and some preserved food from the kitchen. They wouldn't need it thanks to the many food processors aboard every long range ships they could borrow.

Using a pair of sandals that were too large for her feet, Kim tread slowly up the loading ramp of the transport, looking over her shoulder as Ikar exited the house. Her face had a blank expression as if she still needed to process what was happening. Ikar had his own doubts, but waiting and staying there any longer would amount to no good for either of them. He climbed up to her and touched her arm.

"Our lives are hopeless here. I must take you back to your people."

"But what about you?" she retorted, arching an eyebrow.

Without answering, he proceeded into the shuttle to start the engines. He thought that humans were confusing, and sometimes he lost track of his own feelings. Kim no longer looked at him and sat in silence while he flew the craft across the atmosphere. If there was something she needed to hear for comfort, Ikar couldn't bring himself to say it. Severed nerve endings sent a shiver through his spine. The pain was almost gone – not the old one, but his recent operation was almost healed. Still, he'd lost more than his fertility that day.

The southern temple mounds came into view under the night sky. Flying through the clouds, they landed into a hall and Ikar hoped with all of his heart that there would be no welcoming party.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, for himself and for Kim. "About everything."

The shuttle landed in a peacefully desert hangar, slowly lowering upon its thrusters. At this hour of the evening, there would be guards. There would be questions.

In the cargo hold, Ikar stripped down. He then opened one of Uran's crates to pick up a fabric pack. Unfolded, it turned into a full suit of bio-mechanical armor which easily adapted to his shape and fused with his tissues. Immediately, he felt the pain-suppressing effect on his nervous system, invigorating him with nutrients. The rush of the serum flowing through his veins made his vision blur for a second. He was going to have to rehabilitate his body for weeks afterwards. Then, he opened the second crate and chose a medium-ranged plasma rifle. It wasn't meant to be concealed but it guaranteed their security.

"We have to hurry," he said. "Kim, are you well?"

"Yeah."

He found her staring blankly at the equipment and the weapon in his hand. Without hesitation she reached down in the crate, and stood back up with a weapon of her own. A short dagger, almost a short sword for her size. It's intricate handle was made for decorating more than for practical combat. An assassination blade. Lips tilting down, Ikar sighed to get his heart to keep on running. The drugs he'd just absorbed needed him active and soon. He picked up a second black package.

"Take off your clothes and wear this."

Sizing him up warily, she hesitated.

"Will it ever come off?"

He nodded, handing her the suit. He turned away when she undressed even though they'd both seen each other in the nude. The suit of artificial flesh shrunk around her body, forming a second skin of dark, ribbed exoskeleton. Laying his weapon down he helped pull strands of hair from under the material, allowing it to wrap around her neck. Kim shuddered, inspecting her hands and arms, newly covered in non-human tissue.

 _What have you done?_  He couldn't mute his inner voice every time he looked at the woman. The tightness in his chest kept increasing now that she wore the pressure suit, the trademark appearance of the space-faring soldier.

He had wanted to become closer to human nature in order to experience the emotions, not to feel alone, and he'd succeeded.

They made their way through the mound temple, walking across the halls until a pair of armed guards appeared. They wore armored plates over their black tunics, and their rifles had spear blades on their cannon. Ikar stopped in his stride, about ten paces away from them. Kim was nearby and he made sure they'd pay no attention to her.

"Let us pass," he said. "Or prepare to die."

Neither of the young males replied, their black stares full of anxious anger.

"You have no grounds to arrest us," Ikar continued. "That means you're trespassing your duty as defenders of Esharra. My friend and I are leaving the planet... for good."

Neither of them spoke, but more people made their appearance, taking position between the guards. Utala, another elder and Uran. Their faces stern, they stared down at Ikar and Kim.

"The council has decided to have you return to the human colony for further investigation," said the female elder. "However, the majority wanted for your human to stay on Esharra for biological experiments. That is why I've arranged for samples to be taken from her instead, so that you would still be together."

Utala laid her black eyes upon Kim, her lips raising slightly like a smile. Kim stood straighter, clutching at her pack. One concealed hand was still holding the dagger.

"I am leaving the council and releasing you was my last action as a member of the elders. Honor your freedom, human."

Ikar took a step forward, suddenly wishing he had not brought a weapon to this encounter.

"What of their homeworld, Earth?"

"Your attachment to these people is noted. Ikar, you will make sure that the Grays never find their way to the colony, whatever the means."

Uran clasped his hands in front of him, looking more dignified than ever.

"I have prepared your vessel with a selective biological solution."

"My vessel?"

They parted ways, and lead them toward the warship hangar.

 

* * *

 

The bright sunlight made it impossible to look around the base without shades or brightness-reduction filters. In this beginning of spring time, moods were improving despite the cold temperatures. Sipping a cup of coffee in his apartment, Jonas enjoyed the landscape of snowy hills shining under the sun, as children would make snowmen and toss snowballs at each other. Those were the Fernstein and Garcia kids. Walking nearby and keeping a watchful eye over them were Gina and Andrea. It was nearly eight in the morning, he had all day to keep studying and compiling his research but it was the first time in months the colony was allowing the young out of the safe perimeter. This peace and calm was light years away from his previous job with Environmental Control, when constant anxiety and despair were the norm.

Using a hand motion he waved the live feed aside to return to a wide transcript of a Mesopotamian cuneiform tablet. Each symbol was highlighted and as a translation scrolled down. A basic audio rendition read the text and he repeated it, learning the pronunciation, memorizing each word. He'd done the anthropology reading in the last weeks, comparing pictures of Sumerian artifacts and architecture with those seen in the craft, and its carbon-dating evaluated the craft as older than the ruins found on Earth. Jonas got his black uniform jacket on and strapped into his boots before leaving for the briefing room. Every day he compiled research documents for the head scientists and security staff to coordinate their intel. The key to their species' survival was somewhere in ship and he needed to crack its code.

The hallways of the A module were bathed in warm morning sunlight and he avoided looking out the bay windows. Colony staff members acknowledged him with short greetings. Having uncovered alien technology was making everyone anxious, he had to keep that in mind with public outreach.

"Are we finally going to fly the ship?"

He turned around to his left as he walked by the lounge area. A young boy, Tiago Rivera and his little brother Nando were holding their school tablets on their way to class. They looked at Jonas with impatient skepticism. When he had waken them from cryostasis, about six months age, they were barely allowed to leave their family's suite.

"Can we come see it too?" the boy asked again.

"Maybe," replied Jonas. "If you get good grades."

There wasn't a single chance he would bring children inside the alien ship; not all parts of it had been secured, and whoever had designed those different rooms, Jonas doubted they had child-proofing in mind.

Captain Pat Makarand was in the briefing room, reviewing satellite images of the alien ship's hangar. The picture showed a flat circled valley, perhaps a large hatch almost three hundred meters wide. Vegetation and snow were making it difficult to see.

A few soldiers were there, as well as Ben Stevens from engineering, Doctor Oshima, Einar Thordisson and Marisa Domingez for the exo-biology. A few other were missing or late for the briefing but it wasn't the first time now.

"Good morning," greeted Makarand. He was sat on the table, non-challant and drinking coffee. "It's good to see you not be here first."

"Thank you all for coming," he replied, setting his pad on the illuminated table top. The data began synchronizing with the main display interface. "I hope you all had a good night's sleep."

A tired grumble rose across the room but he ignored the complainers.

"Come on, boss," said Dominguez. The Portorican woman wore her curly black hair loose over her shoulders. "The ship's not going anywhere, we deserve a break after weeks of hiking out there instead of using drones."

"Yeah, that place is like nightmare fuel, don't you think?"

He looked at who had spoken and faced Stevens. They had no idea what actual nightmares were like. The bare thought of them made his heart skip a beat and his vision blurred. Decades of medicated numbness had failed to eradicate the psychological damage.

"Boss?"

Sounds came back to him like a wave as he pulled his consciousness out of his grim memories. Sharing his brooding thoughts would amount to no good.

"This is just unknown territory," he explained, hoping to lift the dramatic aspect of their research. "Focus on the full spectrum images, the darkness is our own perception playing tricks on us."

"It's not just that," added Linda. "Look..."

She bent over the table, directing a thin feminine finger towards the mosaic of video footage taken in one of the cargo rooms. The skeletal ridges and bone-like structures were especially visible on that part.

"At some point, this was a living thing. The DNA tests won't work because it fossilized and it's tough like resin. None of this was actually built."

"It's grown," interrupted Thordisson with his heavy Icelandic accent. "How is that so hard to understand? A superior intelligence could only opt for biological engineering instead of resorting to a flawed synthetic type of architecture. Look at that flimsy steel ship, the  _Archimedes_. In twenty years it will fall apart like a sandcastle without proper, expensive preservation work."

"Hey," objected Makarand. "That's  _our_  flimsy steel ship. She's a high-maintenance lady."

Linda Oshima smiled and adjusted a long lock of black hair behind her ears. She liked wearing high heeled shoes even if they were impractical. The parallel wasn't lost on Jonas who always thought the young doctor should revise her priorities.

"Our presence in the alien ship will change its properties over time," she thoughtfully added. "It's best we stay out of it without full bio-suits."

"Message received," he said, cutting the debate short. "For now those who would like to keep interacting with the craft's functions will need to pick up their Sumerian phrase book." He highlighted a bunch of document registries for everyone to copy into their datapads. "I made a basic glossary for the more usual words seen in the inscriptions. There aren't that many that I found. Most of them appeared near door panels, and of course in the main cargo room."

"We're still trying to unlock the combination to activate the navigation mainframe," said Stevens. "Pressing those jelly buttons is mighty fun, though."

Makarand straightened his back and held his mug of coffee as if if was a mallet.

"I sure hope you're not having too much fun, Stevens. Looking at these diagrams, this ship was stationed here for one thing: old-fashioned warfare. It has no living quarters, no portholes and not a single pool table. I say we wall this thing with concrete and pray nobody comes back to use it."

"That's just idiotic," mumbled Thordisson.

"It's our plan B. Like it or not."

"We really don't want to come to that," Dominguez regretfully said.

Arms crossed against his chest, Jonas waited for the room to go silent before concluding the briefing.

"Those who want to can take the day off. After all it's the beginning of spring and I think we all deserve some R and R."

"Copy that," agreed Makarand. "Our families will be grateful. Jessica is having another one of her cook outs for lunch, you should come by."

"Duly noted, Captain."

He let them all find their way out and stayed with the laid out documents, hoping for an epiphany of sorts.

"You're going to kill yourself working so hard."

He lifted his head towards the door, surprised that someone was still there, watching him. Linda smiled - a sad smile - and left him alone, letting the door shut itself with a quiet hiss. Jonas would never get killed, working or not.

Unless some serious explosive measure was used, or if he got brutally dismembered. Otherwise, his cells would regenerate quickly in case of an injury or illness. He was made that way for at one given time on Earth, merely sixty years ago, humans no longer wanted to sacrifice their lives in order to correct their mistakes. They had to create altered beings, robots, chimeras... Genetic monsters who would have no choice but to face the worst horrors of mankind. Killing murderers and vicious sadists had been the least of his worries, but it was the lives that he couldn't save that still haunted his nights.

He let the moment pass and sat at the table to resume studying the diagrams of the ship, its hangar and the passageway into it. A large chimney leading to a splitting hatch was how the ship would take off and fly across the atmosphere. He needed to figure out how to activate it, and hopefully make it run. If it was equipped with ordnance there was a slight chance for it to tip the balance of power for his species. Whether it be the Grays or the things that had taken the only person who cared about him, they needed to see the consequence to their actions.

The door hissed open again. Gina and Andrea came in, eyes wide open and probably expecting to see more people in the briefing room.

"Where's everybody?" asked the young astrophysicist.

"Meeting adjourned," he told them. "I let everyone have the day off. Here's the language compiling I brought, feel free to download it."

Andrea used her translucent tablet and successfully grabbed everything from the briefing interface. She needed all of that data if she was to eventually use the craft's navigator. Her knowledge of astro-navigation would turn out to be vital if he ever got around to make the damn thing work.

"This is awesome," she rejoiced, scanning over the linguistic guide. "I can't wait to actually operate the machinery... Can you believe that? Using alien tech!"

The young Irish woman was endearing, and he couldn't repress a grin as he shared part of her enthusiasm.

"Woah, Commissioner," Gina interjected, hands raised in caution. "We better call for backup because that looks like a smile on your face."

"Could this day get any better?" joked Andrea, exaggerating.

When social life came to him, he found it more appropriate to get out of its way. Leaving the base at opportune times, for example during a cook out, made his existence more bearable. Gearing up in the arsenal depot, he heard people passing by in the hallways, bringing food out to the courtyard and discussing various things about their families or games they played in their free time. His bio-hazard suit was on and he checked that his pulse rifle was clean and loaded. He didn't want to have to use it but training with weapons reduced the risk of facing hostiles unprepared.

"Heading out?"

Jonas shot a glance over his shoulder, caring very little about who it was or what they wanted. Why couldn't they just leave him alone? Gina leaned against the door frame and Vick was nearby, looking out for eavesdroppers. Neither of them got any closer. The Dominican woman continued her suggestion.

"If you can wait a few minutes, we can put together a lunch pack from the grill for you. Sounds better than a prot bar, don't you think?"

They wore their civilian attires, without any markings or tags. They weren't going to accompany him on the trial.

"That's alright," he assured, his voice as steady as he wanted it. "More for you guys and the children."

He pocketed a box of waterproof flare matches for signaling, and he shouldered the sampling kit.

Gina bit her lower lip, evidently disappointed with his response and silently consulted with Vick before talking again.

"I think... you still blame yourself over Kim. Actually, you're the only one who's affected by her not being here."

Her voice was inside the room. He kept his face turned away, having lost control over his nerves at the mention of her name. The bitter sentiment that crept up in his heart reminded him how she had mattered to so few during her time on the base. Gina kept going, almost in a whisper.

"We need you at your best right now and you're not helping anyone by punishing yourself. So many people here are reaching out to you but you just aren't here. Jonas, you need to get closure. She's not coming back. You have to say goodbye."

They all had someone: a significant other, a cherished friend or family member. What he had was a memory, past thoughts and feelings mixed with grief, regrets. The shame, anger and guilt were part of his life now.

"It wouldn't change anything," he said, turning his voice into a groan. A tear rolled down his face, a contamination hazard carrying out his undying, mutated genes. And he had trouble breathing. "As long as we haven't found a body..."

He finally turned towards Gina to see that her eyes were brimming, her mouth trembled in sadness.

"She would have wanted you to be alive and do your job leading this mission. Not... moping, making everyone feel terrible."

"Gina."

Vick now stood behind her and had trouble hiding his own emotions. He caught her upper arm to leave.

Finally, Jonas grabbed his helmet from the work table and made his way out but Gina stepped in front of him.

"We know you miss her."

He confronted the soldier, his thoughts locked up so that she wouldn't be reminded of how he would have to live with the loss forever, while she could easily forget and grow old with those she loved.

"She would have wanted to be here to see our discoveries," he managed to say. "It's all that matters."

He exited the module with deep breaths, forcing his mind on the here-and-now and not on his worries. Within the confines of his helmet no one could see that he wasn't doing well. The party was located on the other side of the bunker. The sunlight did nothing alleviate his mood so he reached into his emergency medkit.

_It'll be okay._

The voice he'd heard was his own echo when he'd told Kim one night, as she was stargazing, that eventually one of them would come to part, leaving the other to continue on with their mission. The serum he injected himself sent a cold wave through his neck that traveled down his spine and through his head. The lights dimmed and he heard nothing for a second.

Jonas started walking towards the mountain, counting each step and completely forgetting why he was on his own again.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back at it! Sorry if I'm updating faster than you can keep up with the story. It's been a while since I've had a creative surge so, I'm trying to get the best of this momentum! Reviews would be greatly appreciated.
> 
> This chapter sadly wraps up Kim's journey in the Engineer world. But fear not! The adventure is far from over... I have a lot of ideas that I'm trying to make work together. Deep apologies for the people hoping to see romance, but this is not a lemon or a pairing fiction ;) Also, the chapters are getting a little longer now, hope that's alright.
> 
> Upped to M-rating because of the depicted violence and slight sexual themes.
> 
> Enjoy!
> 
> Dramatis Personae
> 
> Jonas Savinski - Commissioner
> 
> Cpt. Pat Makarand - Head of Security
> 
> Lt. Leo Xiu - Colonial Marine, Pilot of the Archimedes
> 
> Cpl. Vick Adams - Colonial Marine
> 
> Sgt. Gina Devereaux - Colonial Marine
> 
> Ben Stevens - Chief Engineer, Infrastructures
> 
> Jessica Fernstein - Civilian Counselor
> 
> Doctor Linda Oshima - Physician, Head of Medicine
> 
> Pr. Einar Thordisson - Geneticist, Immunologist
> 
> Kim Tang - Geologist, Mission Supervisor

**Chapter 9**

There were seven rooms in the alien ship. All of the doors could be opened when touching the cuneiform markings carved into the lock panels. Jonas spent a considerable amount of time in the room farthest on the port side of the ship, a circular space where he could sit behind a computer console and study its workings.

On the edge of the table, he discovered a tube that resembled a carved bone he hadn't noticed before. He picked it up and hesitated. It wasn't something he'd planned to do, let alone learn to play the flute. He put the instrument down and rose from his seat. Jonas was tall but nothing close to Annunaki standards, so his boot grazed the console as he swung a leg over the ledge; he stopped in mid-motion.

Bright green and white dots appeared out of nowhere, flooding the dark room with fuzzy images in three dimensions. Mouth gaping and dumbfound, he first directed his attention towards a silhouette which became a man as the image came into focus. Black armor covered his body barring head and hands, exposed severely pale skin and a lack of hair. If the hologram was to scale, he was at least seven feet tall. Another one appeared at the back of the room, operating on what looked like a cannon emerging from the center of the stage. Sat in the command post Jonas previously occupied, the first Annunaki did something he tried to imprint in his memory. Using the flute, the alien played a three-note sequence to activate the computer. Jonas had his own recording equipment inside his helmet and evidently he was looking at a piece of surveillance footage, perhaps destined to whoever might discover the ship and needed to know what had happened on board.

Suddenly everything disappeared and he found himself in the silent darkness again. A crackle in his ear caught him off guard.

"Commissioner," called the voice of Leo Xiu. "Come in, Jonas."

"Leo." He needed to take the flute and run the risk of leaving some DNA if he wanted to try the sequence. "I found something here that you might want to see."

"Okay, well," Leo sounded disinterested, and worried. "You better get back here."

Jonas had his hand on the console and was about to get back in that seat but he stopped.

"What's wrong, Leo?"

A silence. It wasn't in his habit to leave people hanging.

"We have an incoming craft within orbit range." Another pause. "It's a freighter class ship."

"On my way."

His mind already ran the possible scenarios that included the event of a planetary type of space craft reaching HY-427. But as he jogged through the alien ship, doubts began to gnaw at him. Two minutes passed when he finally got out of the ship and his communicator clicked, rebooted itself, and he lost the transmission with the  _Archimedes_.

"Jonas to Arch," he called, mechanically pressing two fingers to the side of his helmet. "What's the situation?"

Every minute without an answer made him curse between his teeth. He was soon out in the open when he finally got a word back from Leo. Except that it wasn't Leo anymore but Makarand.

"We couldn't get an ID on the ship, and they're not responding to our hails."

He was losing daylight and had to make the brisk hike back to base without backup or motorization. Jonas tried not to get angry at the colony or himself. This kind of urgent matter could be handled without him, the troops knew the drill.

"Secure the payload," he ordered. "Raise all security measures. If they're friendly they'll understand..."

"ETA ten minutes," Leo interrupted. "They're headed right for us."

In his stride, he shouldered his rifle and locked its ammunition, releasing the safety switch.

"This is Captain Makarand." He heard the announcement in the transmission background. "We have incoming potential hostiles. Initiating lock down procedures. All civilian personnel should remain confined to their quarters. This is not a drill..."

"Jonas," Leo apologetically added. "I'm sorry."

"Do what you have to do," he shot back, hurrying steadily up the frozen path.

Climbing up the rocky hill side he caught a glimpse of the base and the  _Archimedes_  peacefully sitting a hundred paces from the modules. Twisting his neck, he scanned the sky to see a bright light mirroring upon a metallic object. Its smoky tail indicated extremely high speed for an atmospheric cruise. They were coming in too fast. Using his scope as a magnifier, Jonas recognized the type of craft and realized that it was modified for interstellar trips. But it wasn't made for landing. That crew was desperate and didn't have enough juice to slow their descent.

He could intercept the landing site and secure the survivors before they could reach the colony. It was a piece of cake but he still had to get under cover and remain undetected. The base was on lock down, which meant that he was on his own.

* * *

It felt like walking barefooted. The floor was cold and hard to the touch, flat then ribbed with boney shapes at times. There wasn't a single moment when she thought she'd be safe in the ship.

Clad in the alien living suit that stuck to her skin like dried glue, Kim followed Ikar across the different rooms. Each were separated with a long, ribcage-like corridor. In certain rooms, he told her not to touch anything, especially not any of the hundreds of black urns she saw.

Kim kept quiet. They were still alive and free to leave the home world of the Annunaki. Regular spikes of pain made her bend over as she walked, hands covering her abdomen. It wasn't as bad as a few hours before and she suspected that the exoskeleton suit served a healing purpose. Although if she bled or produced waste inside it, how would she get it off and clean herself?

Her doubts vaporized when Ikar brought her to a circular podium with stairs, and four stasis pods were open, as if welcoming their new crew. Tall silhouette impressions marked the spot where they should lie, and black tubing surrounded the vat.

"When you wake up, we will have arrived at our destination," he said.

"How long will it last?"

"You won't be aware of the time passing."

He knelt down and lent her a hand, helping her into the coffin-like compartment. The tubes connected instantly to specific ports on her suit as she stretched out her legs; her feet didn't reach the end of the vat. Ikar's face looked somber from where she was.

"Something else I should know?" she asked.

Ikar pinched his pale lips in response, then shook his head. Taking a moment to consider what they were about to do, Kim took a deep breath and tried to show kindness on her face. She spoke again.

"Thank you for doing this."

His large hand caressed her head and she couldn't bear his sad look. She wanted to return home, that was the only thing she knew, but Ikar had no place in that scenario. It wasn't the time for regrets. She laid down and Ikar pressed a command on a panel nearby. The vat closed itself and a transparent yellow canopy closed up on her. Her face was suddenly covered in a breathing mask while more tubing attached itself to her suit. She focused her thoughts on the colony, her research, then Jonas came to her mind. The thought of seeing him again made her question why she had given up on going back to the colony. Now, it had been too long for people on HY-427 to keep waiting for her and she'd practically be coming back from the dead.

* * *

Smoke, mostly vaporized snow, fire and debris. The modified cargo freighter was broken in two, lost its stabilizers and blew its engines cold from exhaustion. The Weyland Corp logo was barely visible under the grit of rusted, burned steel and asteroid impacts. Soon enough, people came out of the gaping hole right after the bridge, and near the cargo section where the landing ramp still functioned to open with a loud crank.

From his cover behind rocks, Jonas counted six armed men in light clothing, combat vests, and black boots.

He wanted to warn Makarand that they may be dealing with mercs, but he had to observe radio silence. The crew entered the perimeter between the Arch and the base, weapons shouldered. They weren't used to the cold and their small jackets made them shiver. Anything would startle them and make a nervous trigger get pulled. As they progressed along the security fence around the modules, the youngest man of the crew ran operations on a bionic interface into his left forearm. He was not the fighting type, but then again anyone stupid enough with a weapon was as big a threat as the whole group. The security turrets would take care of them if they ever got too close to the base or the ship. Jonas needed to find out what they were here for.

Keeping a low profile, he progressed from rock to debris and got out of cover in time for none of them to see him approach the crashed freighter. The boarding ramp was still open and his scanner detected many more heat signatures inside. He got into the ship as quietly as his boots allowed it. If anyone noticed him he'd fire a tranquilizer shot to their necks and be done with the squabble.

The cargo compartment was so full, he barely had space to move into it, but the sounds - and the smells - took him by surprise. Squawks, barks and other cries reacted to his intrusion. Cages upon cages piled up or broken in a bloody mess, and filled with so many animals that most of them were emaciated and sick if they didn't die in the crash. Jonas groaned in anger and shut the door behind him. He grabbed the black steel barrel pointed to his chest, giving the attacker no time to steady himself as he twisted his arm around, and caught his jaw in a firm headlock. The emotional stabilizers he'd injected himself with were coming in handy.

"What the fuck are you?" moaned the unfortunate young man stuck between his armored gauntlets.

Jonas looked at two other armed individuals, holding him at gun point in the narrow space of the boarding corridor; one was a short-haired woman and the other an elderly man with long gray hair. His databank had nothing on their identities, but his bio-scanner told him they had a low grade flu and the female was three weeks into pregnancy.

"Now, now," said the old man. "We're not looking for trouble. Let the boy go."

With his free hand, Jonas grabbed the kid's sidearm, an old Sig Sauer with just half a clip in its loader. His trapped hostage was struggling but didn't use the right technique to free himself. Jonas no longer wanted to investigate their ship. He growled at them.

"Why have you come?"

The man and woman looked at each other nervously. Patience running out, Jonas tossed the youngster at them, dropping the ancient handgun to the metallic floor. They could shoot him but he wished they wouldn't. Bullets would ricochet on his armor and kill them instead. His question got no answer as they protectively retreated away from him, yet they still held their rifles up. Jonas sighed and began scanning the ship for transported ordnance.

"You stole this ship from mining stations off the Hildas asteroid belt. Shoddy job equipping it with a warp engine, probably meant for a larger ship. That means you spent several months traveling from Sol to here."

He knew their kind; scavengers, thieves, murderers. They bred beyond their sustaining capacities and wasted their resources to eat the flesh of other species.

"How many are you?"

"Twelve," answered the female. "Three small children, all orphans."

The elder man lowered his rifle. He was getting tired and Jonas could see that he needed to sit down.

"We lost two on the way," he added. "They got sick... we don't have the medical supplies to save them."

They couldn't know who or what he was. The program for environmental restoration and conservation was decades before their time, if not a century already. The markings on his armor meant nothing to them. He gestured at the cargo hold door.

"Help me sort the live ones from the dead. Then we'll have to deal with the sick and injured."

"What?" The long-haired brunette protested, almost dropping her gun before holding it up to his face again. "You will help us first, to save the kids."

His belt pouch contained more than anti-depressants, he could probably offer a trade. Nodding to them, he agreed to see the children. Walking through a damaged corridor where the hull was breached, the crew got cold and the children were in a closed room where everything was ravaged by the shock of the landing. There was blood on the furniture edges. Jonas saw the heat signatures of small humans hiding behind a peeled off bulkhead. He approached them and took a knee.

"The air on this planet is toxic for the human body. In a few hours, you'll all feel the effects of it."

They cowered in fear when he took the injector gun to place the vaccine vials into the charger.

"How do we know you won't poison them?" bitterly accused the woman behind him.

"I can save them," he said. "Your mind is already poisoned with all of the charred flesh you ingested. There's nothing I can do for you."

There had been trials. His brothers and sisters had been executed for crimes against humanity, acts of terrorism against industrial and corporate institutions, and man slaughter. Hadn't Jonas signed up to volunteer for the colonial mission with the Weyland company, he would have been executed as well.

"Kids," he called. "You won't be able to breathe in a few minutes. Come out, and get your vaccine shot."

It wouldn't purge their system of the virus or bacteria contracted from their diet, but it would buy them enough time to survive the journey. They each came out of hiding and, even though they look terrified, offered their arms for him to inoculate them with the appropriate immunity cells.

"What's your name?" asked a seven year-old boy.

"Savinski," he replied. "But you can call me Jonas. I need to do something very important, but I can't do it alone."

He opened the cargo hold again after the adults tried to keep the children away from it. Jonas exited the filth encrusted room with a young Belgian Shepard puppy in his arms. It was weak, underfed but it could live. The three kids' eyes opened wide with endearment as they saw the small creature and gathered around Jonas to try and pet the animal.

"We need to save as many as we can. Do you think you can help me with that?"

That morning he hadn't planned on educating young children about animal cruelty and neglect. Their tutors observed with heavy resent, and eventually lent a hand with cleaning the cages and getting rid of the corpses while the kids placed all the babies in a safe crate. They'd probably never imagined that their food started as cute, fuzzy little pups, chicks and cubs.

And no, they didn't need to know that, seventy years ago, people like them would get arrested and sometimes killed for breeding animals.

After washing up and taking the kids back to safety, Jonas took the three adults for a sidebar.

"What do you know of this colony? Surely you didn't come here by chance."

The bearded man spoke, fatigue weighed in his voice.

"It's the first interstellar colonial mission, and humankind's last effort for lasting sustainability."

The younger one breathed fast and shallow before continuing.

"They took everything from us. The Grays. Everything's turned to shit on Earth, we couldn't survive there."

"Jake!" The woman pierced him with her eyes. "Keep your shit together."

Jonas stared her down through his visor as her breath became irregular. The old man sighed and sat down on a nearby crate. She softened her tone.

"Please, help us. We're going stir crazy."

He'd used his last vaccine vial, his rations were pointless for so many mouths. He needed to put them in custody and decide what to do with the rest of the colony.

"Grab an oh-two mask. You're coming with me - unarmed."

"Me?" Eyebrow cocked in disbelief, she clutched her rifle tighter.

"You seem fit to walk. Get moving."

She prepared to face the cold outside, throwing a thermal blanket around her shoulders and equipping the oxygen mask with the reserve tank clipped to her belt. The female was combat-trained, there was no question about that, but her edginess meant she wasn't military. Jonas let her walk in front of him on their way towards the base.

"My name's Laurel," she commented halfway into the hike. "Why are you wearing that mask?"

"Because I don't trust you."

The security turrets were up, but the blinking lights of the fence were inactive. Jonas switched on his transmitter and opened the channel with the Arch. No signal, just static noise. He saw no one through the canopy of the huge ship. Approaching the base entrance, the gates were open and nobody was in sight. The one called Laurel kept talking with her cynical tone.

"You would rather save animals than humans, though. I could get behind that."

There was no time for a philosophical debate. He shouldered his rifle and took cover behind the fence, in position for a tactical entry. Laurel mirrored him.

Entering the base was alarmingly easy and not one security lock was active. Some kind of short-range electromagnetic pulse weapon had had to be used to disable the systems because he'd noticed nothing from the crashed ship.

He remembered the kid with the bionics and looked at Laurel. She didn't show over-confidence but her silence could mean anything. Broken glass and bullet impacts stained the corridors. Red emergency lights had been triggered by the power shortage. If everything had observed lock down procedures and gone down to the third level below the surface, they had a chance to remain safe. Taking his binding cuffs, he called the female to him.

"No," she refused, seeing the bracelets. "I won't do anything stupid, I promise."

"Hands behind your back. I don't need you to get smart, I just need leverage."

She was the only female in their crew, which didn't surprise him at all. In the old patriarchal societies, they didn't need more women for reproduction if they were going to conquer another colony.

"We almost didn't make it, you know."

He was trying to think of the most likely route the attackers would take to secure hostages. Except that in this case it would be much more simple than that. Laurel kept talking nervously.

"The corrupt were after us, they'd been thinning our numbers for years. We were supposed to be fifty on this trip."

"I assume you're talking about the Grays." Jonas checked each corner and every door, then lead them down a stairwell.

"Humans controlled by the Grays," she corrected, mindful of her steps in the dark. "They brainwash people into becoming obedient sheep to feed the system."

"And you led them right to us."

They got to the second floor. Laurel complained with a groan as he pushed her aside, scanning the other side of the door with his infrared reader.

"Ever heard of fight or flight?" she hissed. "We weren't going to simply bend over and take it like a bitch."

"Shut up before I tranq' you."

He pulled the manual override and the door hissed open to reveal a long, dark hallway with two merc guards standing with their rifles pointed at kneeling military personnel - Leo and Makarand. Two pairs of boots were lying limp on the grated floor however, and Jonas couldn't see who that was. There was a tall man with a lot of scruff on his face, and a shorter male with a scar on his right cheek. His haircut was lacking and his vest had the most ammo pouches and bandoliers. He saw Jonas and rested his carbine rifle across his shoulder.

"Well, well. Looks like someone answered your prayers, Captain."

Jonas couldn't find the younger merc with the biotech, along with the sixth member of their group. Coming closer, he recognized Clark, the big African American corporal and Vick, laying on his stomach in a pool of blood. His bio-scanner told him that Clark was gone, but Vick's pulse was still going.

"That's close enough," said the merc with the scar. "Drop your toys, G.I. Joe."

They were standing in front of the supply closet. Behind Makarand was the door to the gene bank.

"Settle down, Mark," shot out Laurel. "He's not going to harm anyone."

"Really?" Twisting his scar sideways with a sneer, the one called Mark took a step towards Jonas and pushed a daring finger on his visor. "Are you a robot, or is that a real boy in all of that tin?"

His HUD tried to identify him with a quick DNA and facial recognition matchmaker, in vain. It hadn't been updated in over thirty Earth years.

Without having to throw his head back, he knocked into the merc's forehead with his helmet, sending him falling backwards to the floor. That created the needed distraction for Leo and Makarand to get up and catch the other two men's weapons, turning them against their owners. Makarand was first to open fire and shoot the first guard in the head. Leo shot his target in the leg to take him down, and held him at gun point.

Laurel screamed and shouted, rushing down to assist the Mark individual, but doing so with her hands tied in her back made her trip and fall flat on his chest. Both squirmed in an awkward mess as the man tried to raise his gun at Jonas, but the woman was in the way. He brutally shoved her aside, making her head knock against a wall but Makarand already had the muzzle of a pulse rifle on his temple.

Jonas helped the sobbing woman, a capillary vain had burst on her brow and blood soaked half of her face. Mark was disarmed by Leo.

"That's two for two, asshole."

Looking around, he saw Vick moving an arm, weakly moaning to get someone's attention. He checked on him and Jonas noticed the shot had passed cleanly through his shoulder, avoiding all vital organs.

"Can you hear me Baby Bear?"

The marine sat up with a wince, any normal person would have screamed their lungs out in pain. He gave him a gauze pouch and sealing gel.

"They used an EMP device," said Makarand. "Cut off our comms and broke in."

"Weyland dogs!" spat Mark. "Turning my wife against me, and killing my crew."

Leo brought his wrist up to call for backup and a medical team, keeping an eye on the man with the injured leg.

It was itching Jonas to kill him as well. He slung his rifle around, keeping the fragmentation risk in mind, and grabbed the side-arm from his leg holster.

_Murderer!_

He mentally waved the ghosts away from his memory and paned left and right to look for the rest of the intruders. Blood, bone and brain matter trickled down the wall where the dead man's head had been shot.

"Please," implored now Laurel, bending forward to catch his attention. "No more..."

The other two geniuses couldn't be very far. Jonas went ahead to search for them.

Regular lighting was restored and the faint hum of the air conditioning could be heard across the module. The networking synchronization rebooted and he was able to access the surveillance cameras.

"Stevens," he spoke through his link to the supervisor. "I need a report."

"Of course, Jonas. Everyone's accounted for among the civilians. No injuries. But now I'm detecting unidentified males near engineering."

A soft bleep notified him of an imminent alert coming from the aerial drones.

"Alright," he told Ben. "I'm sending a squad over. Stay safe."

He switched to his closed channel and reached Makarand to tell him about the two missing intruders who'd gone near the power management room one level below.

"Copy that, Savinski. We're stretching thin here, so I'm putting Deveraux up for it."

"Get ready for another blackout," Jonas warned. "This isn't over."

Taking cover in the stairwell, he checked his remaining call from the drone link. Superimposed with his HUD, a red dot blinked on a map that zoomed out over the entire valley. The base and the Arch were reduced to a cluster of rectangles, putting the red dot at almost half a mile away. This beacon had a custom-set alarm, and he'd completely forgotten about ever programming it. His heart jumped in his chest.

"Makarand, I need you to take over. Something's came up. Heading out to the hangar bay now."

"Care to elaborate?"

He ran up the stairs, holstering his weapon. He didn't have the time, and he didn't want to jinx his luck by explaining.

* * *

The mask came off her face and she could wake up again, her limbs still attached to black tubes everywhere. Ikar helped her out of the pod, liberating her from the stasis but she had trouble standing on her own.

"You can go home, now."

His voice was deeper than ever, she would miss it.

"Where will you go?"

Ikar smiled reassuringly. From the look on his face she guessed that something had changed for the better.

"Not far."

She would miss neither the disgusting architecture of this ship, nor the loneliness and desperation.

"What is your purpose here, then?"

Their conversation with Utala and Uran was still on her mind. They sent them back for a reason, and she feared that there wasn't anything to change the course taken by the Annunaki elders. With her small grasp of the language, she understood that there had been speak of weapons and ships.

"To watch over your colony. I trust that it will remain safe and worthy of existing. No need to worry."

He pulled her hand down towards the corridor but Kim tried to swallow the ball forming in her throat.

"I don't like this, Ikar."

Her tall protector, or what he used to be, didn't stop in his stride.

"You have met my people, and you know what it takes to live by our rules. Your new task will be to spread the message to your kind."

"Or what? Suffer the wrath of the ancient gods?"

Their next stop was at the orrery room where she saw the moving diagrams of the galaxy, and what she understood was the Hydrian system. Ikar began to disrobe her of the exoskeleton suit, parting the thick organic material from the middle of her chest. She then peeled the suit off by herself as he handed her the robes she wore before the flight.

"You have been a good friend to me," he said. "I have but one regret."

Fully clothed again, she tried not to blush.

"What's that?"

"Having not accepted that you couldn't love me, because you love someone else."

 _Oh boy_.Kim crossed her arms, glad to be in her own skin again. She took a cautious step forward and touched his hand. It had been cut by a blade and she'd tried to heal it, and now there was no trace of the injury. It was so much larger than her own hands but she'd grown attached to this big, traumatized and caring alien.

"You will find your companion," she said, trying to sound confident. "She's out there, with less insecurities and who's not afraid of traveling the galaxy with you."

He smirked. She realized she'd talked nonsense after being naked with him a few times but the physical difference, it turned out, hadn't been the issue standing in the way of an inter-species relationship. Ikar pulled his hand away and fixed a lock of her hair behind her ear.

"And I wish you the best future with your friend."

Feeling her throat locking up, she threw herself in his arms to hug him affectionately.

Kim had to keep following her instincts and they told her that Ikar was more than just a nice Annunaki person. He was also a powerful, cold and sometimes reckless warrior with an arsenal of mass destruction at his disposal. She had a feeling that she would meet him again.

The ship was set in the bottom of a valley. Outside, she didn't know if it was night or day time, hot or cold, and if there would be people around to welcome her. Ikar got at her side in front of the boarding hatch. Utter silence made the moment stand still.

"I've hidden the ship in an underground sanctuary," he explained. "Once you step outside, follow the path going north until you see the valley. That's where your colony is."

She clutched at her robe, contemplating the walk in the wilderness barefooted and under-equipped.

"I left here over two months ago," she thought out loud. "It was the season of the fall then, that makes it winter time now. We'll see how good a field researcher I can be without shoes."

"We could settle for a warmer climate," Ikar suggested. "There are many hideouts like this one... We would be safe."

His hand was on the small of her back, sending shivers through her entire body. Ikar was caressing her, trying to influence her. He kept talking.

"You are strong, Kim. There is so much you could accomplish if only you were free of your people's failures."

This wasn't the same person who'd shown respect and modesty towards her in the beginning. Something had changed him.

Her face was locked between his palms, forced to peer into his black eyes. Kim was terrified that, if she tried to struggle or fight her way out of his reach, he'd break her neck. Tears streamed down her face.

"Please," she begged. "Let me go. You're scaring me."

"You must overcome your fear."

Her eyes fell on his neck and the armor that connected to his flesh. She remembered lying willingly into the stasis pod while wearing it, and she didn't think twice before going naked in front of him.

The exoskeleton was making its wearer fearless, unhindered.

Kim reached for his chest, edging her fingers into the mid-seam in order to pull it apart. But as she got closer Ikar took advantage of it, and he pressed his mouth against her lips. His nostrils blew warm air on her face and she squeezed her eyes shut, trying not to register the kiss and trying not to respond to it. But whatever she felt in her mouth she also felt in her privates. She squirmed to pull away, though Ikar became more insisting, and he took his suit off on his own accord.

He broke off the kiss and heaved over her, pressing on her shoulders to lie down on the cold floor while he pulled her robe up from her legs. Pure hatred filled her heart as he exposed her lower mid-section.

"No!" she yelled, eventually struggling to free her arms. "Ikar, stop!  _Stop!_ "

Instinctively, the few self-defense classes she'd taken came back to her. She kicked him, a first time in the knee and then in his genitals. He yelped in pain, releasing one of her wrists to grab his crotch. She turned on her heels, bowing her other arm over her head, thus twisting Ikar's wrist in a joint lock. He released her with another whine of pain. Remorse crept up in her heart because she never wanted to hurt him, but it had to be done. He wasn't himself and there was no time for discussion.

Picking herself up in panic, she found the hatch controls and frantically traced the cuneiform sigils with her fingers to open the door. Freezing air blew through the opening and she stepped out.

Her foot met nothing and she slipped, fell down with a gasp. She landed perhaps six feet below on a hard, rocky surface. Looking up, she saw the pasty white silhouette of a topless Ikar looking out through the open hatch and screaming her name. His image was no longer bearable to her, she turned around and got up. She started running out of the cave.

There were so many tiny, sharp rocks on the ground. She felt her feet cutting and bleed but the cold made it hurt less than she expected. Running as fast as she could, she got out of the cave and the sunlight hit her face with a warm embrace she wished she could enjoy. Instead of feeling comfort, something lifted her off the icy dirt before she could step on the snow. The base compound was in sight, perhaps half a mile away. Kim cried her heart out for help, but didn't get the chance to listen to the echo.

"Kim!" Ikar hissed, dragging her inside the cave again. "Calm down. I'm sorry for what I did. You  _should_  be scared of me, but I would rather you hate me than freeze to death."

She fought him off, exhaling deeply to decrease the width of her torso in order to slip through his grip. Ikar let her go, gently this time. Had the testosterone surge worn off? Kim took a few steps back and looked him over. While completely naked he was covering himself now.

"Are you alright?" she asked, wrapping her arms around herself, shivering.

"Yes." He made his way back inside the cave to find warmth. "Good thing you weren't wearing shoes."

It had actually hurt her toes when she'd kicked him but she refused to find the least bit of humor in that.

"Go on, get back in the ship," Kim commanded. "They will find me, and they'd better not see you like this."

She hid in the dark, under cover of the wind inside the cave for the next hour. Even if she wrapped herself tightly in the thick robes, her hands, feet, and ears had gone completely numb. She knew she had to remain active and moving to prevent hypothermia, if only she had eaten properly.

Maybe it was a terrible misunderstanding, an accident. A mistake. But she couldn't forgive. She cursed herself for ever trusting him, or thinking that she had any sort of control.

Her toes had turned blue, and she could no longer move her fingers. Then she saw a light in the dark.

Questions rose in her mind, thoughts she'd never had even in her wildest dreams where she thought she'd be dying. That was it. She was sure that her eyes were shut but, then again, with the cold she wasn't certain that they were open either.

"Oh, no... No, Kim, _wake up!_ "

The faint voice barely made her react. It was a dream, and she hoped with all her strength that it was real.

. . .


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

She weighed little as compared to the numbers in her medical file from the time of her enlistment in the mission. Wrapped in a thermal blanket, and injected with hydration to slow down hypothermia, Kim wasn't moving. Jonas carried her quickly to the quad track, threw the medkit in the trunk and smashed down the accelerator. He drove as fast as the snow allowed him, mindful of the bumps and drops.

The intruders in the freighter could wait, and they didn't need to know who he was bringing back from a three-month absence. Giving them no more thought, he took Kim in his arms, feeling her tremble even through his armor and the large blanket.

_Focus. Breathe, you idiot._

His emotional state was deteriorating and he had to watch his every step in order not to trip and fall on his way to the ICU. Ben Stevens was there to help him get into the medical bay, and Oshima admitted Kim. Lying on the bed next door was Vick and his bullet wound. Securely protected with bio-hazard suits, Oshima and her assistants unwrapped Kim from the blanket, then from her clothing - a thick type of black fabric he'd never seen her wear before. Jonas turned away, waiting in the observation room where he could see through a glass pane. He removed his helmet and inhaled with difficulty.

"She's going to be fine, Jonas."

He turned to see Ben, the Chief Engineer had just entered the room and he was smiling. How could he be so confident?

Linda had her tied up to intravenous injections, and her body was maintained to a normal temperature with a better thermal blanket. She applied a gel to her exposed skin, and her hands and feet had turned to a worrying shade of purple.

The weight of a hand made Jonas abruptly turn around.

"You should sit down," said Ben again. "Relax. Your stress is not helping."

"What can I do then?"

"You still have a job," Ben shrugged. "Take care of those kids we just took in. And those animals will need shelter."

Anyone could do that. But if this was Kim's last moments, he had no other place to be, even if he could only watch by the sidelines. The cardiac monitoring bleeped regularly, and his senses kept track of the rhythm so that he'd jump at any hick-up. There were creatures suffering from so much worse, elsewhere. Kim probably hadn't regained consciousness. If anything, dying this way would be peaceful and relatively painless for her.

Once the doctors were finished with intensive care, they placed the room under quarantine and no one was allowed in or out without proper authorization. After all, Kim had been suspected of being taken by an unknown intelligence using unknown technology.

Removing the mask and helmet of her suit, Linda gazed at him in the observation room. Her face had mixed expressions.

"She's stable and gradually recovering from hypothermia. Her body's responding to the treatment."

"Oh, thank goodness," commented Ben.

"But why isn't she waking up?" Jonas didn't know whether to be angry or sad. "It's been an hour already."

The doctor brought her hands together solemnly.

"She's been through a lot." Her eyes went from Ben to Jonas, her mouth was hesitant. "The anatomical scan revealed that she underwent a hysterectomy."

Processing the news, Jonas grabbed the edge of a table and slid down on a chair, grating his sidearm against the furniture. He looked at a dramatically pale Kim through the glass, her shut eyes sunk deep in dark sockets and her stomach was shallow under the blanket. She used to be healthy and fit.

Linda took a box of tissues that she placed on the table next to him so that he could dry his face.

"She's lost a lot of blood. We found bruises around her neck and wrists, and deep lacerations that we still need to determine as evidence of sexual assault. I believe they're the cause for the hemorrhage."

This was more than he could take. He promised himself that if he caught whoever had put her through that nightmare, he would make them feel the extent of his rage.

"It's best that we let her rest until she's able to speak," Ben concluded. "I guess I should check on Corporal Adams. Jonas?"

After a moment, Linda came to put a gentle hand on his back.

"We'll take good care of her."

Once he'd gathered the courage to leave the medical module, he returned to his apartment and dropped his helmet on his desk. He needed to wash up before showing his face in public again. His stubble was almost turning into scruff and his sandy hair was growing beyond the standard buzz cut. He looked nothing like he used to, three months ago. Dark brown eyes were bloodshot and he couldn't straighten the anxious crease between his eyebrows. Jonas quickly shortened his hair with the subsonic trimmer and cleanly shaved his beard. The organic reducer activated when he ran water into the sink, eliminating the contamination risk through the plumbing. He'd wanted to shower and clear his mind, but a splash of water on the face would have to suffice.

He grabbed his gloves, opened his refrigerator and re-hydrated quickly. Walking past his desk to pick up his helmet, his eyes stopped on the holographic screen which presented the drone scanning result. Kim's ID picture was displayed on the map, confirming the localization of her crew member chip. She looked happy in the photograph, with her hair neatly tied in a pony tail, and minimal makeup gave her a feminine yet professional appearance. An insane thought crossed his mind. Wouldn't Kim have been better off not returning to HY-427, and not risking her life? Why did she come back now?

He emerged from his apartment even more confused and tired. Those who walked passed him in the hallways stepped aside to give him space. Jonas fought the urge to go back to the ICU and headed down towards the Security office. The holding cell was packed with people not stated in the mission roster: the intruders, or  _immigrant_  now was an appropriate term. All eyes were on him when he consulted with Leo.

"These guys never registered with any type of government or hospital," said the pilot in a hushed voice. "Ben and I are making new files for them but no way to really know when they were born."

"Make sure you get all the details about what they did to avoid getting caught by the Grays."

"I sure will." Typing at full speed on his touch-screen, Leo lifted his eyes up to him for a second. "How's Kim?"

Jonas clenched his jaw and swallowed with difficulty.

"I don't know when she'll be able to tell us what happened."

"So, it's bad."

He didn't want to admit to his fears in front of the men. Makarand, Gina, Vick and the others... they'd lost their own friend Clark that day. The first casualty among the Colonial Marines since the beginning of the mission. He needed to stay focused on the job.

"Did the biology department find a place to keep the animals?"

A heavy silence hung in the air. Makarand rubbed his chin and mustache, shaking his head.

"Stop worrying, Savinski."

He looked back at the captain. He was concerned about the poor creatures and the more anyone would tell him to put their lives after that of human's, the more he needed to care for them.

"They're all taken in and safe," answered Gina. "Thordisson is working on a vaccine for them."

Makarand, seemingly angered, walked out of the station, pulling him by the bicep despite his smaller height. He took him to a secondary office space with a glass door panel to prevent others from hearing the exchange.

"Your job is to overlook the operations, and sit quietly in a nice office while the foot soldiers make your wishes come true." He poked an index at his chest plate. "We're in deep shit right now. Thanks to these scum over there, we can expect the Grays to show up any minute. It's time to put all of your research to good use. And maybe even Kim's got something useful to share with us."

He knew the man had no intention to judge whatever was happening with Kim but Jonas didn't understand why he was tiptoeing around the topic.

"She hasn't regained consciousness yet," he replied. "I'm afraid she may be in too much of a shock to speak when she comes to."

"In three months of separation, you'd expect a lot to talk about."

Jonas took support on a chair's head rest, avoiding the sensitive subject of his relationship - or lack thereof.

"I'm going to investigate the location where I found her. It looked similar to a cave entrance."

Responding with a twitch to one side of his face, Makarand sounded skeptical.

"Just be with your woman, Savinski."

He would use his given last name whenever expressing impatience or sarcasm. It was purely meant for social immersion as Jonas had been bred without any predetermined parents. The name itself was a random pick from his genetic ethnicity pool.

Fighting was pointless given the state of events that day. And if Linda would object to his presence in the medical bay, she could stuff him in a bio-haz suit and forget about him.

There was a gathering of people outside the module. Men and women from the payload, people who had no business there but to satisfy their curiosity. Four hours after the freight ship had crashed and civilians were already breaking the lock down rule. Jonas didn't want to know what they'd be willing to do if they were allowed to take a vehicle and exploit the land elsewhere. What were they going to say to their new neighbors?

It wasn't his problem for now. But they looked at him and didn't move out of his way.

"Keeping them here is wrong!" shouted a man.

"It's cruel to have them locked up like criminals!" protested a woman, in the back of the crowd.

"Make them work for their own food and shelter!" added another male voice, even further back.

"Yes," he said affirmatively which made them shut up. "They will earn their share of goods around here, as we all do. But as our fellow humans we have to show them the right way to live. So, please give them time to settle in."

Jessica Fernstein was there, watching from the sidelines, wrapped in a thick parka. As the crowd dissipated he made his way to the living quarters module and she made the walk with him. She made sure no one was close enough to eavesdrop.

"Pat told me you found Kim."

The captain and the appointed speaker of the civilian community had become close since Jessica broke up with her husband a few weeks ago. Jonas had no qualms with her or Makarand, there were no rules against the military fraternizing with the rest of the colony.

"She's in bad shape," he told her, pessimistic. "I'll let you know when she'll be rested enough to talk."

"Don't mind me, Jonas. I trust you will take all the precautions to keep us safe."

He stopped, raising a suspicious eyebrow at her.

"Safe from what exactly?"

Jessica dug her hands into her pockets and stood straighter to face him.

"An epidemic. We got these refugees with poor hygiene and now, someone who's been gone for months and exposed to alien bacteria. I'm afraid we won't have enough room to avoid creating new diseases. Of course, you wouldn't be affected. Worst case scenario, your DNA could weaponize the common flu."

"I appreciate your candor."

"Don't take it the wrong way," she added with a crooked smile. "I'm happy she's back, and alive. But someone has to ask the unpleasant questions."

"Well, that's why we have procedures and rules, Jessica. Not everyone here is just winging their job and nosing into other people's business."

As he strode off, he heard her footsteps crunching the snow behind him.

"This concerns everyone!" she exhorted. "For someone as old and supposedly as wise as you, I thought the greater good would be your top priority."

He knew and understood why she was upset, so he decided to drop the argument and be on his way. Kim had been as good as dead for a while and her being back should not affect the way things were run now on the base. If she was infected and contagious, people wouldn't welcome her back into the society.

It was self-preservation, nothing more.

Back in his apartment, he stripped down and showered after realizing he'd let the harsh words get to him. Jessica and Makarand could keep talking, he didn't care anymore. His opinion on whether anyone lived or died was unimportant - one of the few things he couldn't decide as a Commissioner.

But age hadn't made him wiser. After a hundred and ten years, his life was still as difficult as it was in his thirties. He was isolated by his easily transmissible cell-regenerating enzymes, and his unchanging appearance while the rest grew old and died. There used to be others like him - his friends, and siblings - but on this mission he was completely alone. And his passed filled with secret operations and stories of horror made it hard to appreciate the peace and quiet.

He let the emotions run over him while he was in the enclosed shower cabin, keeping all of the biological contaminants from spilling over anything. No one could hear him either. The stabilizers were meant to be used in these moments although, without any actual field work to do, they would only worsen his state of mind.

The armor could wait for cleaning and he stowed the pieces on his shelves before getting dressed. Jonas owned basic fatigues and shirts given to him by either the marines or Ben Stevens. Weyland didn't allocate much to his budget since he technically didn't exist on Earth. Once looking like a regular person he returned to the medical bay.

Reading the patient roster, he read Laurel Harding and a few others. Whatever they were in for, he hoped they wouldn't extend their stay. Using his bionic wrist chip to require access to the quarantined zone, he noticed through the plexiglass wall that Kim's bed was empty. He heard the sound of a toilet flushing and a moment later, a familiar face walked barefooted out of the bathroom, bringing a smile on his face. She didn't see him, and unsteadily reached her bed to sit down and wrap the blanket around herself.

He reached for the door and gave another look at her. Glassy eyes were fixed towards the floor in a blank expression. She sat in a fetal position in the way he'd found her, but at least she wasn't in below zero temperatures and she was safe. Jonas went back to the vitals screen and checked the monitor. Everything seemed normal, aside from a low blood count. Reluctantly, he waited and decided not to enter the room. Part of him was scared to find out what had happened, and he wondered if she'd recognize him.

Her status had been set to non-essential. The feelings he had for her held no strategic value and stemmed from little interaction. He had touched her hand once, with gloves on.

Kim sniffled and rubbed her hands on her face, then ran them behind her head, rocking back and forth. What had happened? Had anyone spoken to her yet?

Unable to stand by and do nothing, he got to the door and moved his hand over the lock to open it. Red letters flashed on the LED panel.

PERMISSION DENIED. QUARANTINED ZONE.

Boiling with rage and pain, he called for Oshima on his handheld. She answered right away.

"Yes, Jonas."

"Disable security for Kim's room."

There was a huffing noise as Linda sighed.

"I can't. After what she told me I decided no one should enter until we have a full spectrum report on her health. Even with bio-haz suits." She paused. "She said that an alien had attacked her. She ate unknown food, so there's a high contamination risk involved."

"Linda..." He mustered all of his self-control not to burst in outrage as he watched Kim's mental state getting worse. "You have a report. Thordisson took the samples and found nothing. Not one trace of non-human DNA."

He thought about blowing the lock to pieces, snatching Kim and going away with her, possibly far away from everyone.

"Are you going to transmit your regenerative cells to her?" Oshima softly asked.

His stomach knotted and, jaw clenched, he provided her with an answer.

"If she agrees to it, then I will."

Silence took over, and the transmission ended. Waiting, he lost patience and the lock was still active. He knew where the surveillance camera was and looked right at it, hoping someone was watching and maybe if anyone dared stop him, he could finally ask if there was an ounce of compassion left in this colony.

The security bypass tool from his integrated bionics were invisible to the external eye but he had no trouble cracking the code and getting the door to open. Jonas got in, and she spun her head in surprise. Without a warning sign he went up to her side and they were in each other's arms.

The flimsy hospital gown did little to hide her weight loss, and she trembled, grabbing the back of his shirt and pressing her face against his shoulder. Had she forgotten that she couldn't do that? He brushed her hair down her back, smelling her scent. The bruises around her jawline were still there. He broke the hug to inspect her face, then looked at her marked arms with more bruising. Kim looked down, wiping tears from under her eyes.

"You came for me," she said, weak-toned.

He didn't want to tell her that everyone believed she was dead.

"You're home," he reassuringly replied and held her hands. They were cold. "A lot of things have changed... We have animals now. Dogs, birds, rabbits..."

Perhaps the thought of taking care of the rescued animals would brighten her mood. He smiled, picturing her holding a puppy or what ever pet she liked. She could even have her own home, watching the animal grow and learn from her teachings.

"I- I don't understand," she said. "Where is everyone?"

Jonas looked down, unwilling to think about those people.

"You're under quarantine restrictions. You're not allowed any visits until we're sure it's safe for you to come out."

"But, you're here, aren't you?"

"Well, I couldn't wait that long."

She frowned sadly.

"I'm so sorry... I had the chance to come back sooner, but I thought I could do more over there."

"Look, you don't need to explain yourself. Whatever happened, you managed to survive and now you're back. It's all that matters."

Tears started flowing again, and he winced in pain as she stumbled on her words.

"They made me live with one of them, and I trusted him... He's still here, on this planet."

He stared perplexed into her eyes, trying to grasp the gist of what she meant.

"What did they look like?"

She described tall, pale humanoids much like the ones he'd seen in holographic recordings in the alien ship. He shuddered in horror. Kim was so tiny compared to them.

"Two weeks ago we found some sort of hangar," he told her. "And a ship. It was empty."

She looked at him, baffled, then shook her head.

"There is another, and I think he's still inside."

Her lips twisted downward when she talked about that male character and he couldn't help but sense her disgust and shame. Jonas had met assault victims on Earth and he was looking at a similar display of emotions.

"How did you escape?"

Using the back of her hands to dry her face, she breathed in and her voice went bitter.

"He let me go. I was supposed to be returned here in the first place, but... things got rough. He wanted to help us against the Grays but he didn't like that I had to leave him."

They fell silent and Jonas needed a minute to process the thought of her being forced to live with a seven-feet tall humanoid. Or had she chosen to stay with him? He fought hard not to ask how far it went, or what that thing had done to her. Evidently, she felt guilty about not having returned sooner. While he was happy that she'd come back, knowing that someone else had gotten close to her made his heart sink in despair again.

She lifted her eyes and made eye contact, lips bitten and dry. Jonas touched her cheek and drew her closer. Kim accepted the embrace, hiding her hands next to her belly as if something was hurting.

"How long did it last?" he asked out of curiosity. "This whole journey."

"Eight," she replied. "Maybe ten days."

 _Fuck._ He slowly backed up and pinched the bridge of his nose with discomfort.

"I know it's been three months for you, Linda told me." Shoulders dropping, Kim seemed tired and helpless. "Have you been...  _waiting_  for me?"

"Yes," he responded with a short sigh, and took her hand again as it was the only part of her body he allowed himself to touch so far. Forcing a smile, he gathered his courage. "I missed you."

His hopes had been met when she returned that day and he didn't know what more he wanted by confessing his feelings to her. Kim searched his eyes with her eyebrows brought together with concern.

"I won't be coming out of this room for a while, am I? With the quarantine and what I was exposed to, it could be at least until the end of winter before I'm cleared."

She was obviously diverting the conversation away from talks of intimacy or establishing a relationship. There was no time for that any longer, and Jonas needed to get her on the same page.

"No one would object if I were to move you to private quarters instead of occupying a medical room."

Kim swallowed nervously before nodding. Mindful of his words, he got off the bed and glanced at the one-way glass on the opposite wall.

"If you need to rest I can come back. Then we'll go to your new apartment."

"I'm actually okay to walk," she chuckled, getting out from under the covers.

She was eager to leave the cold, sterilized room and to be able to pace around the base module again, even if she clung to his arm for support. Jonas put his hand up at whoever stopped and stared. Some smiled, but most looked shocked and even scared to get any closer. Seeing this, Kim said nothing but kept a joyous facade all the way to the living quarters. He'd given her a pair of pants and slippers to walk in, but soon she would retrieve her own things and dress the way she wanted.

Waving at the lock mechanism, the door opened to the large suite apartment. The desk monitor was still active, showing the latest drone search result with her portrait displayed in large size.

"I didn't have time to clean up," he said and let the door close behind them. He swept the screen blank and set the ambient lighting up to sixty percent. "Your things are in the closet, to the left of the bed."

Kim slowly looked around her, the suspicious smirk on her face starting to make him self-conscious.

"This is your place, isn't it?"

He felt an itch on the back of his head.

"Your room had to be re-purposed due to lack of space. I didn't want your belongings to be recycled or destroyed. I kept everything here and, against the general consensus, I did all I could to hold back changing your status to...  _deceased_."

Mouth dropped, she paced around the rooms, picked up a dinosaur figure from a mantel. She ran her slim fingers around a row of books, and she stopped at the glass display of crystal minerals he'd started collecting. Quartz rocks, for the most part. And one amazonite crystal. He'd found a piece of green rock in what seemed to be a shallow vein. Her voice was but a whisper when she eventually said something.

"No one has ever done that much for me."

His left hand clenched into a fist and he relaxed himself, exhaling intently while looking at her.

"At first I thought I was being selfish, keeping those items in memory of you. Then, I realized I did it to honor the few moments we spent together."

Kim turned around, looked at his clasped hands held in front of him and scrutinized his face. For the first time in this whole life, Jonas was anxious to hear someone's reaction, hoping she would approve of him. Kim's face was hard to read sometimes.

"Aren't you afraid that this isn't just infatuation?" She leaned against a wall, arms crossed against her breasts. "I was gone for so long, after all."

He slowly shook his head. Jonas had never practiced these in-depth conversations about feelings before. Whenever he'd hear himself talk for more than two minutes, he'd grow sick of the sound of his own voice.

"I guess it's good that it took us so long to get here," she agreed with a tilt of her head. She pushed herself out of her corner to stand closer to him, arms still locked together protectively. "If we're going to be roommates, we might as well keep each other company."

His heart jumped in his chest. However, Jonas looked at her without moving, unable to restrain a smile on his lips.

"Company sounds good."

Her face was lined with fatigue, her hair in a messy pony tail but Kim looked like she'd never lived through tragedy just hours before. She reached for his face, caressing it lightly, and Jonas knew with apprehension where this was going. Exhaling slowly, he thought that holding her shoulders would put a halt to the situation.

"Someday, you might look back to this moment and wonder about the choice you made."

She blinked, staring deep into his soul. He didn't want her to take that crucial step while in a vulnerable state of mind; after all, she'd been attacked and tortured by aliens.

"You don't trust me, do you?" she asked, creasing her brow with worry.

No, he didn't, not that instant. Unable to handle his heart from speeding in a non-combat situation, Jonas shook his head. He barely found the words to answer her.

"I don't think I can trust my own judgment."

Was it wrong to fight how she made him feel? From her reaction, he had to assume that, yes. She hugged him. Feeling her body against his made him shudder with anticipation. Kim, peacefully looking up at him, whispered.

"It'll be okay."

He didn't fully register what happened next or how they'd ended up kissing. But the rush of emotions, physical reactions in his veins, nerves and skin all seemed to impact on his awareness. And then, somehow, the touch of her lips made him more lucid all the while he didn't feel completely awake. He tried not to over-compensate for his lack of experience. He sighed painfully the instant their mouths opened and her tongue slightly touched his. She made him want more, to explore the shape of her curved back, feeling the warmth of her body underneath the clothes. He couldn't - he  _wouldn't,_  not that day.

They had all the time in the world.

He broke the kiss to catch his breath. Kim beamed at him, panting slightly as she clutched at the pectorals on his chest. Looking closely at her moist lips, he wondered if changes would appear soon enough.

"First, you'll be feverish," he explained. "Then you'll have all kinds of food cravings. When your DNA is modified you'll be at your most contagious... you'll have to be extra cautious with skin contact."

She laughed, touching his face and and letting tears roll from the corners of her eyes, repeated that it was going to be okay and they kissed again. In his life, Jonas had listed two circumstances where he could feel safe and out of others' way: in his apartment and his armor.

Kim was going to be the one and only person able to make him feel safe, and  _free_.

. . .

Revolt and shame filled his dreamless slumber. Lying in the stasis pod, Ikar couldn't get to sleep or become unconscious before replaying the events in his mind, over and over. The delicate chemical balance of his hormones had been disturbed by the organic armor. He'd stopped using it for too long, being accustomed to rudimentary combat protection and clothing.

The woman he'd grown to admire was never coming back to him. In fact, she had never actually been with him if her heart was promised to another.

Pulling himself up to get to work, he couldn't cleanse his mind. He was still furious at himself, and at Kim for not giving him the time to explain. Ikar sat at the computer controls and scanned the nearby colony base. A ship had crashed and more humans had taken shelter among the modules.

This was unacceptable. Their species was not in control of their growing numbers; they would attempt to conquer and dominate everything in their path, including the new technology they'd encounter in the caves. It was coded in their genes. Power, envy, passion, lust... At least, they had that much in common with his own kind. Only, he had learned with progress to control his urges, as did everyone else in order to achieve greatness.

It wouldn't be long until they would investigate this place, and he would be ready for them.

There didn't seem to be one specific person designated to run the colony. The one who was called captain merely dabbled with security issues, like that of the arrival of new human colonists. Then there was Kim's lover; although practical and efficient, his range of action had little impact on the way people lived their lives. The scientists did basic research and didn't advance much, even with the discovery of a ship identical to Ikar's.

And finally, there was the red-haired female matriarch. She held the people's opinions and morale in her hands, as he had seen from the footage of her many gatherings in the outdoors. If anything were to happen to them, because of her pragmatic thinking she would be the one to turn to. Ikar studied her image, memorized each freckle and the way her green eyes squinted when she was irritated. She dared to confront even the great warrior that Jonas once was, and questioned his judgment. She was right: Kim had no place in the colony now.

Ikar smiled, but his satisfaction soon turned to bitter regret. He would have to put himself on the line again, sacrifices would have to be made.

. . .


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mush alert!
> 
> Sort of getting all of this out of the way to give room for more important matters later on. This is more of a "fun" chapter where the characters are getting used to each other.
> 
> Not to spoil the reader, but there is a sex scene down there. M rating - finally - justified!

**Chapter 11**

Watching the colony's activities from behind surveillance monitors made her feel uneasy, almost cowardly as if she'd never left the alien ship, and Ikar was there. Maybe he was doing just that: looking over everything, observing her through devices and technology she couldn't comprehend.

Kim inhaled through her nostrils, repeating to herself that she didn't betray anyone and her choices were not completely selfish. She cupped the mug of herbal tea under her chin, not without reminiscing the last time someone else had given her a similar hot beverage. Living with the memories was going to be tough.

Jonas had gone that morning to help build a proper shelter for the animals he'd rescued. When she saw him leave in full armor, about to assemble beams and modular walls under the rain. It was bizarre to think that she'd spent the night in bed with the same person. She counted the hours until he would come back and then she would try to be close to him again, however difficult that may be. It wasn't her lack of words as much as her inadequacy in private situations that made it so hard.

A soft bleep pulled her gaze away from the bay window screen and she sat at the desk to answer the video call. It was Linda.

"Hi Kim. Jonas told me you'd be there," said the Japanese doctor. "How are you doing?"

Kim pulled a lock of hair behind her ear. It was still humid from the shower she took an hour ago.

"Good, thank you."

Linda waited with a curious look.

"And how are you adjusting to your new condition?"

Annoyed, Kim looked away from the other woman's face, anxious to end the conversation.

"I don't feel any different, if you're assuming that much."

"You need to bear with me. If only I could be there to monitor the progress in your blood, we could document this mutation and try to find a workaround against the contagious aspects."

The idea was enticing, and it required her to go behind the back of the man who had been on her side all along. Whatever trust she had to build with him needed to start there.

"There's just no way around it," she said. "The safest approach is complete avoidance. When more people will know about Jonas and I, there will be no question that it wasn't meant for anyone besides a handful of people, at one given time on Earth."

Linda's stare hardened and she bent forward on her desk.

"By that logic, your purpose is to do what, exactly? Become his girlfriend for the end of time? I didn't think you were the type."

"I didn't know I was a  _type_. Anyway, Linda, I'm working with what I'm handed and I'm sorry that you can't be a part of it."

There was a lull in the exchange and Oshima began to smile.

"So, was it good?"

Kim gulped down her disgust. She knew Linda was a nosy gossiper but seeking details of her love life? She wanted to spit at her. It was a video call which would make it safe from any sort of containment breach. Kim smiled back. She had thoroughly enjoyed being held and snuggling until they fell asleep.

"It was nice."

"You lucky bitch, you." Linda eyed her with envy then swiveled her chair to get up. "Take care of yourself, Kim. Don't hesitate to call."

The transmission ended and she let out a frustrated groan. Unsurprisingly her relationship with Jonas would create such jealous reactions but Kim never considered herself a threat to other females... That position was for ladies with game with men and she wanted nothing to do with that. She grabbed a pack of biscuits and brought her tea to drink on the bed where she programmed a series of archeological finds and transcriptions that Jonas had been studying. He'd shown her the basics of what he understood of the Annunaki and their civilization.

She munched the dry cakes mechanically, starving for more food but she'd promised to wait for him before pigging out in the kitchen. Her newly acquired cells were already at work, making the skin on her hands and feet completely smooth and not cracked from frostbite. Wondering what else could have been fixed, she tried not to dwell on her more serious wounds for too long. Linda could have asked about her health instead of acting like a child. She waved the thoughts out of her mind and focused on some useful work.

Seeing the Sumerian artifacts and learning of the same stories she'd heard from Ikar didn't make her feel as angry as she'd expected. She accounted for her serenity to the fact that she was no longer alone on this quest. Jonas was even able to utter words in the tongue of these ancient aliens, with his own pronunciation. His reaction had been of stupor when he heard her speaking the alien language with the authentic tones. Kim told about the lifestyles, their military and their morals. She mentioned the council of elders with their cryptic logic and the fact that they were keen on protecting the humans if only to antagonize the Grays.

Compiling all of her observations in her personal journal, she wished she had taken pictures or brought back evidence of sorts. Such a report would have granted her the Nobel prize, and enough Academy recognition to become immortal. They would have given her name to science museums. The Kim Tang Museum of Space Exploration. She chuckled cynically as she spoke it out loud.

But it was only the beginning. Ikar would come out of hiding and she feared that he might want to patch things up with her, once official contact was made with her colony. His ability to speak English made him the ideal diplomat, an ambassador of the Ancient Gods who once taught humans how to build their own modern society. She was going to hate him for a long time.

She clenched, unclenched her knuckles and inspected her nails which had grown longer than she would usually let them. Looking through Jonas's things to get nail clippers, in his bathroom cabinet she found something else instead. Bottles of pills, vials of serum, eye drops. All of them derivatives of anti-depressants, hypertension and insomnia medication. She counted them, one by one, but there were too many to know exactly for how long he still had to be taking them. Perhaps forever.

The front door hissed opened and boots rapped against the floor with numb thuds. Kim hurriedly placed the bottles and vials back into the cabinet, however Jonas was already behind her in the mirror's reflection, still armored but unmasked. His expression shifted from serene to grim and his large gloved hands covered her shoulders.

"It's alright, I'll do it." He picked up the remaining medicine from the edge of the table and placed them back in the cabinets. "Were you looking for something?"

She felt the wall against her back and shook her head, looking at him through the mirror and his face showed concern when he locked away the last of the pills.

"Is it for your PTSD?" she asked.

Her own face looked livid, almost sickly. The last time she had used makeup was for the mission launch and then she'd removed it all before going into the thirty-year long stasis sleep. She made a mental note to borrow some from a friend - no, not Linda.

"I have a drug addiction," Jonas said, point blank. "They keep me level. Without them I'd-... it doesn't matter, you shouldn't worry about it."

She followed him out of the bathroom, hesitating on whatever words needed to be said first. Was he on drugs then? Did it affect his awareness? He removed his armor, piece by piece, placing the equipment on a gear shelf next to the closets and armory.

"Did you talk to someone about it?" she finally had the courage to say.

"My therapist prescribed me those drugs," he answered, not without a smirk. "She didn't specify for how long, or in what situation I had to take them. Her job was to get me functional and ready to go."

Kim sat on the swiveling chair at his work table, slowly coming to terms with who she was dealing with. He was now removing his leg armor and stood dressed in a black skin-tight suit with seam lines running around his body for climate control. He looked over his shoulder at her before pulling down the front zipper of his suit with an absent stare.

"So, they work?" she asked, out of curiosity. "Those pills."

He creased the space between his eyebrows and pulled down the remainder of his clothing, leaving only black boxer-shorts. She averted her glare, feeling already flustered at the sight of his robust build. Jonas never sunbathed; his toned skin was the result of different pigment mixtures. Then, he opened the linen drawer and grabbed a clean towel as he answered.

"Only when I really need to take the edge off. I try to lower my dosage now but... Yeah, they work." He went for the shower cabin and stood for a second, looking down at her. "Don't take those pills, Kim."

Her eyes were brimming and warm but she refused to let the tears go. She nodded in compliance, and he smiled at her.

"I can't shower while you're watching."

"Oh!... I'm so sorry." She scrambled to go to the living room, resisting the urge to peek between the library shelves. "I was thinking about something else."

She sat on the couch and nervously scratched her forearms. Red spots appeared in the small of her elbows, her skin becoming inflamed at the slightest touch. The redness faded in matters of seconds. Wondering, imagining, she looked around for something sharp, maybe a knife... What if nothing could really harm her now? Perhaps Jonas had done it, too. The ability to heal so fast would open so many possibilities, but also allow for so much gruesome pain in times of desperation.

Kim got up and tried to distract her mind. This quarantine was already driving her insane. Lunch. She went in the kitchen and fixed up a meal. Pasta would have to do. The fresh tomatoes from the biology lab would be terrific for the sauce. She was slicing up the onions when Jonas returned, wearing the same t-shirt from the night before and sweat pants.

"Need a hand?" he grabbed the plates from a cupboard, watching her hands.

Kim concentrated on her work. One cut, and she could see for sure if her new blood had acquired self-regeneration.

"Do you have salt? Chili powder?"

He chuckled while draining the water from the spaghetti.

"I've never cooked anything in here. So, I don't know."

"Holy crap. Have you been on military rations and processed foods since we landed?"

"There was the occasional meal in the barracks. Nothing really consistent."

Finishing the sauce Kim shook her head, grinning.

"We're going to get so fat, you and I."

When food was ready and Jonas served the dishes, Kim programmed a video to watch - a comedy, perhaps a short TV show - then they did something completely crazy and sat on the bed to eat. It was an old British series about a computer support team and their silly antics. Jonas seemed to appreciate the humor, for someone with almost no leisure time. Hearing him laugh was a delight.

"I can't believe this is how you eat at home," he said after coughing, his face reddened as if he'd choked on his food.

"I think most people do it," she retorted, putting their empty plates away. "Don't ask, don't tell... Speaking of that, Linda called. She asked a bunch of questions about my  _new condition_."

"Which one?" Jonas propped his elbows on his knees.

"You know, the one," she chuckled and sat back next to him, taking interest in her toes. "She wanted to know what my purpose was going to be now that I'm immortal."

His piercing brown eyes studied her face before he answered.

"What do you want it to be?"

The mission was going on fine without her, there was no use for a woman to get lost in random adventures which was where she excelled, and she couldn't run the risk of bringing her mutated genes to the aliens.

"This may sound inconsiderate and selfish, but I'm not going to be someone's companion all of my life."

Shaking his head, he shifted his stance to face her.

"I don't want you to feel trapped, not after what you've gone through."

"I really don't," she assured him. "And I think I know you better than I did Ikar when he abducted me."

He stretched his lips to a sad smile. Weeks into the arrival of the Archimedes on HY-427, Jonas had disclosed all of his confidential files to the colony. Every one of his missions, his objectives and reports were made available for anyone to find. His goal was to lift all doubts and suspicions surrounding his case, resulting in people avoiding him altogether. The depicted horrors he'd seen in his field reports were too much to handle for the general public - she'd barely skimmed across the pages herself.

"Since yesterday I keep telling myself that this is the best outcome to the recent events." Jonas meshed his fingers together, letting his attention wander in the void between them. He took a shaky breath. "But I'm afraid I may turn out to be more trouble for you than you expect."

Kim touched his arm and attempted to get visual contact.

"One day at a time."

Her touch turned to affectionate fondling of his hand when he opened his palm upward. His eyes were still turned away but his face scrunched into a silent sob. She felt a lukewarm tear drop on her hand. Jonas ran a thumb on it, rubbing the fluid dry as he seemed to lose control over his emotions.

She brought him close, nestling his head against her breast in an awkward sitting position, then laid down upon the pillows. His strong arms wrapped her tightly but his hands were clenched in fists. There was nothing sensual, not while he was in such distress. She loved that her heart was beating fast and feeling the warmth they shared made her own worries fly away. It was scary that such a good moment would cloud her thoughts.

While she was caressing his cheek, he seemed to have restored his calm and he lifted himself up, pulling his short sleeve to wipe his eyes. Kim didn't want the moment to end, she even hoped he would decide to spend the rest of the day with her.

"Have you got more work to do?" she asked, her throat clenched.

"Always," he answered, "but I took some time off now that the shelter is done. We'll soon need hands to make food for the animals now. I have to decide whether we keep them or euthanize them... For their own good."

"Aren't people going to take a vote? I'm sure the kids would love to keep some of them."

"It's not that simple." He sat on the edge of the bed. "The hard choices have to be made before mistakes like that happen."

Scooting closer, she rubbed his back, trying to lift his mood.

"You can relax for as long as we're together."

Jonas turned and stopped what she did, gently holding her arm away. He politely nodded.

"I appreciate what you're trying to do, but since we're here you should know that I wasn't made for intimacy, let alone sharing a life with anyone."

"Me neither," she spoke back, her throat tightening with emotion. "But I hate to see you like this. I didn't picture myself in this situation before, but at least I wanted to be happy... and  _be_  with someone."

Eventually he looked back at her with longing, perhaps also a distress she couldn't resist. Was she being too motherly? Her body was trembling in fear, or excitement, she couldn't tell the difference, and her mouth still tasted of tomato sauce when she bit her lips. She knelt beside Jonas, expecting him to make a decision: to pull himself up or let himself go to self-torment. His response was hesitant, like a young man would, and he surprised her.

"Should we have sex?"

Almost laughing at her own worries, she shrugged.

"If you want to."

"Well, it's what people would assume," he bitterly explained. "And I guess if we're a couple, we should at least try once."

"Jonas, I don't mind having sex with you. Heck, I even dreamed of it. But you sound like it's not your thing."

Falling silent for a short moment, he stared at the ground. Ever since she'd begun working with him on the field, Jonas had appeared nothing but strong and confident as a wise veteran hero. Seeing his vulnerable side now made her even more amazed. She wanted to make him feel strong again.

Sliding a soft hand to mesh fingers with his, she nudged his shoulder so that he would embrace her again.

"It's hard for me to think of you that way," he defended himself.

"Then don't." She leaned upon him, smelling his neck. She knew he was able to perform, she'd felt it in her back that morning, before he woke up. "And, if you're not feeling attracted to me, who cares what others think? We can still be friends... It'd be easier, that way."

Waiting a few seconds, she pulled away from him and got up to leave the room. The silence was too much to bear. It was hard but she had to accept the fact that, physically, she wasn't taking care of herself. Her weight was chaotic and so was her body hair regimen. She'd come out of an unhealthy journey across the galaxy and really looked the part.

Back in the bathroom, she gave herself a hard stare in the mirror before her round face twisted with despair and self-loathing. How arrogant of her to even pretend that he would want to get intimate. She was fat, ugly and sad. It had helped her as a barrier against heartache for as long as she could remember, and now it was even protecting her from happiness. Only a hormone-boosted alien from outer space would have wanted to bed her - no, to  _rape_  her.

But the bathroom door didn't lock, and she heard Jonas on the other side.

"Are you okay?"

She was crying on the floor, feeling a surge of negativity through her mind, wishing she had died in the cold before he could rescue her. He was her hero, and she thought she had a chance with him? This wasn't a movie, she thought to herself. The handsome knight couldn't fall in love with a sick, neglected, and depressed reject.

"Kim?"

Covering her ears with her hands she sat against the cold tile wall. If she stopped hearing anything, she could stop thinking and the tears would stop.

The door hissed open and Jonas knelt down at her side, looking around before softly lifting her chin up. Kim squeezed her blurry eyes shut and jerked away from his touch. She knew she had to give him another chance, after all he was as socially marginalized as she was, if not worse.

"Tell me what's wrong," he pleaded, glassy-eyed.

Why did it have to be so difficult? Why did she have to raise a storm each time she got close to anyone?

"Why didn't you tell me yesterday?" she cried accusingly. "You could have said that you didn't want me, then I wouldn't have kissed you."

And now they were stuck together. She fantasied morbidly about having stayed with Ikar, to become his slave in his grand master plan to dominate mankind. She would have had a purpose, however humiliating and horrible. And, that way, she would have found a reason to end it all.

Jonas got up to his medicine cabinet and stopped for a second, breathing heavily as he contemplated a small vial. Nervously, his free hand searched a drawer where he stored the injector guns. He wiped his eyes and squinted to read the label on the serum, then he looked down at her. Neither of them spoke, but he flipped.

Crushing the vial in his hands, with a furious groan he punched the glass cabinet, sending shards and medicine everywhere in the bathroom. His right hand was bleeding as he slid down against the wall. Kim made the effort to closely look at the wound, the cuts shrunk, slowly but surely within twenty seconds the bleeding stopped and the deep scratches were gone.

"That was really stupid," she blandly said.

He blinked, and looked up at the ceiling. Sighing, he rubbed the blood on his pants and started picking up the broken glass. Kim cursed herself and got up, helping him sweep the fallen tablets and vials, collecting the various chemicals in a small box for later sorting.

When she was done and Jonas had cleaned the drops of blood on the furniture, he brushed her hand as she gave him the medicine. They both stopped what they were doing.

"I'm sorry," she murmured.

His fingers lingered on her hand, and he took the box to set it aside. Kim frowned and scratched her head, going for the door.

Without a warning, Jonas grabbed her around the waist and pressed his mouth upon hers, breathing shakily as he slid his tongue in her mouth. Panicked, she was lifted off the floor and placed at the edge of the counter as she felt his hands running up and down her back. He reached for the clip on her bra and Kim almost interrupted him. Now was not the time to be her old self.

"Here?"

Holding her knees up he peered into her eyes, pleading. "Will you forgive me?"

It was something about the sound of his voice, or the rush of blood and adrenaline in her veins but she nodded, anxious to see where this was going. She lifted her shirt off and wrapped her arms around his neck, not minding that neither of them had brushed their teeth nor prepared in any sort of way. He went topless and she explored his shapely pectorals, smelling his non-perfumed antiperspirant and soap. His dark nipples were hard when she ran the tip of her fingers on them, feeling his anticipation grow through his own touch. He caressed each of her breasts in adoration, then his hands ran into her pants and underwear. Kim gasped loudly because, no. Only her own hands had ever been in that region and there was no way she'd thought her first time would happen in a bathroom. His breathy voice blew into her ear.

"Let me know when you're ready."

"Keep going," she panted, realizing with disappointment that she was already exerting herself.

His fingers slid around her erogenous bits of flesh until they found the entrance and he pushed forward. She reacted instantly and he sighed as well. The bulge in his groin was getting larger by the second.

She leaned forward to kiss his chest, touching the top of his abs and pulled the elastic edge of his trousers down. Moving her hips towards him so that he could take off her bottoms hastily, she tried not to think about why, how and what was going to happen down there. She just knew it  _had_   _to_.

He was trembling and his hands pulled away from her, interrupting the sensation building up in her belly, and he guided himself into her. Kim's mouth gaped at the touch of his swollen member on her sensitive parts. She didn't want to look, but curiosity won her over and she widened her eyes at his length and girth.

Soon, it stretched her and she felt pain. If it torn her flesh, would it grow back instantly?  _Stop thinking_. Kim focused on breathing in sync with Jonas, and he pushed into her with controlled force, grunting and moaning with her, even though she was confused with the mix of pleasure and pain. She felt his arms were trying to squeeze her but he made visible efforts to softly stroke her back.

"Are you-?"

"Shut up," she interrupted. "I'll be fine, just... don't stop."

The pressure alone was difficult to get aroused with, except when his pelvic bone rubbed against her own and more nerve endings got involved. Otherwise, the bodily smells, wet smacking sounds and the hard, gripping feeling of the counter on her behind made it very distracting. Only when she looked at him and found his smile did she completely enjoy the experience. He did love her; she didn't need to hear him say it.

Unexpectedly, she neared climax, compressing Jonas and he squirmed. It made all matters worse because she didn't want it to end this soon and his excitement was out of control. He kissed her passionately, exerted and sensually moving in and out when she felt an urge to urinate. She wasn't sure if it was her bladder being full, or... that other thing. Both of them were still contracting and throbbing well after it was over. They kissed, slowly and almost shyly as they caught their breath.

Jonas looked down and chuckled, stroking the side of her thighs. They both recovered their calm, forehead to forehead, and he helped her down from the table, mindful that she may slip on the fluids around his feet. The mess they'd made on the gray tiles reminded her that they weren't running any risks to get pregnant. Perhaps he'd known that, too.

Holding his hand she took them across the apartment, hurrying before her wobbly legs would give in, and rushed under the blankets. She tried to pull him in with her but he resisted, standing naked at the bed side with a tired look on his face.

"We should clean up and shower."

"Don't be such a pooper." She stroked his thigh and playfully held his flaccid end, modestly covered with foreskin. "I already miss this little guy."

Okay, not so little. His dark blond pubic hair did nothing to hide that. Jonas eventually caved and got into bed.

"You should rest, though." He stroked her face, his strong arm becoming her headrest as she cuddled up against him. Even though his breathing was steady and slow, his face was stern with uncertainty. "I want you to recover as soon as possible."

"Then maybe I can get some fresh air tonight."

She missed standing outside under the stars. The underground cities of Esharra didn't allow for much stargazing unless one ventured out in the open wilderness. Jonas gave her a kiss on the head, breaking her line of thought.

"I'll look into it."

She grabbed the hand that covered her cheek and tried to hold his attention, absorbing every detail and everything that made it so difficult to imagine life without him. Eventually she had to explain herself.

"I know I can never replace the family you once had. But I really want this to work."

Touched by her words, he stretched his lips timidly before murmuring.

"Don't worry, I wont let anything come between us." She felt his other hand around her back lightly running the tip of his fingers on her skin, sending shiver through her spine. "Do you like that?"

"I like  _you_ ," she bluntly replied.

Moving over her until she was laying down on her back, his hazel eyes pierced into her soul. The blanket fell on the side of the mattress leaving their bodies exposed but she felt warm beneath him.

"I want you," he huskily said, shifting his weight to fit on top of her. "You're so beautiful."

Because she was naked, and he was already aroused again? Kim shoved aside her cynicism to favor the lust and love she had for the only man ever able to make her feel confident and happy.

"Can't say 'take a picture' now since I won't be aging," she mused, tracing the line of his wide nose with her index. "I still can't figure out which part of you comes from where. You're like a chimera."

He snorted with mockery at her comment, and got even by tentatively slapping the side of her butt cheek. Kim scoffed and felt his hand sliding around her waist to feel her belly, and she apprehended his reaction. Jonas stopped above her pelvis, pressing with caution as if he was trained in human anatomy. She touched his hand on top of where her womb used to be.

"Why did they do this to you?" he asked with contained grimness.

"Aliens take whatever they want," she grumbled. "I suspect they're growing new hybrids of human and giant albinos as we speak."

"But they freed you. That's got to account for something."

She had to agree that, yes, the Annunaki weren't all bad. Trying to hold a serious conversation while in the nude used to be unthinkable but even if they had nothing better to do, she didn't want to waste the opportunity for more sex, and to improve their love-making to catch up for lost time.

"You're right," she acquiesced, and stroked his biceps encouragingly. "Let's get back on topic now, please."

He enthusiastically kissed her, though his eyebrows were furrowed and his face was intense. It took extra work to get back to the first excitement, and this time they went slowly. Kim appreciated each touch, every look and sound. The bed was so much more comfortable than the bathroom.


	12. Chapter 12

"There is no predicting what the female will say to her leaders about us - about you, Ikar. You've made a grave mistake."

Utala stared him down through the vision link, her double-toned voice making his bones vibrate. Ikar stood solemnly before the representation of the elder in the middle of the orrery room.

"Letting her go to her people was the least damaging decision, and I had no other choice, Utala. I'm sure they will consider my actions with mercy. They are a compassionate species. No sooner than yesterday they've offered refuge to their less-civilized cousins who've escaped Earth, and built a home for beings destined for the slaughter."

The lined face of the female elder twitched with contempt at his story.

"We are afraid that your leniency to judge humans will bring us to our ruin. You've spent too much time observing them, it is now time to act. That is why you should have introduced yourself along with the woman. Her life would have been  _your_ leverage instead of theirs."

"I understand," he said, bowing his head.

"You are still young, Ikar. Perhaps this task will earn you the wisdom and greatness that you need in order to transcend. And remember: you are the higher authority in this situation. The feelings, the pity you have for these creatures won't be what saves them."

She bowed her head once and ended the transmission.

Ikar headed down the cargo hold and threw his robe around his back. He made sure the ordnance room was locked and sealed, then headed out of the ship. The night time walk in the cold did not affect him through his armor. Every hundred paces, he pulled out his electromagnetic compass. The fluid metal contained in the circular box fluctuated towards the north and he double-checked the stars in the sky above. He had a few hours left before sunrise, plenty of time to reach the safety of his other ship.

The humans had left traces of their passage along the way: trial markers, footsteps, and even seats and an empty crate near the entrance. Below the surface, Ikar found his craft in pristine condition, even though it had been resting there for a thousand years. The air was easier to breathe and the cold faded quickly as he entered. Reaching out for the hidden commands in the boarding hall, the surveillance playback activated with his hand gesture. Three human soldiers got in, cautiously scouting the ship, their grainy silhouettes in the green holographic display no taller than his shoulders. Fast-forwarding with another wave, he watched a group of different humans, led by the first man he identified as Kim's lover. The other people were not combatants, but a team of researchers. Their clumsiness betrayed their fear of the unknown.

Ikar went to the orrery room and sat at the commands, grabbed the flute and turned the computer on. Nothing had been touched there, and it seemed even the great undying leader of these humans couldn't figure out how to make it work.

Before leaving the ship, Ikar checked that nothing could trespass the cargo hold or access its deadly containers. No matter how bad they behaved, he couldn't afford to sacrifice their entire species just yet. Ikar would be the first to admit that he still held feelings for Kim, and seeing her suffer could literally drive him mad. That was the power she had over him. He'd been warned about humans and how they got the fiercest warlords to fold and die for them. It was the tragedy of Mankind, their short lifespan, the intensity of their passions.

But he had seen no such fire in the woman he had longed for. Even when he'd slept near her, she had showed him nothing but the coldness worthy of a matriarch. Foolishly, he'd wished for something more.

That was not the time to dwell on his failures. The orange sun was rising behind the mountains in the west while the lights of the colony came to life, waking for a new day of dull labor and survival.

Soon, infrared rays pointed in his direction in the least stealthy way he'd seen. His eyes could see almost the entire spectrum of light, making their technology appear as child's play. And he saw their weaponry, springing up from the ramparts with loud cranking and too slowly to be any kind of surprise. Ikar politely stopped in his stride, showing his hands in a sign of peace before the person controlling the guns would start to panic. He smiled, knowing that his story would be remembered through the ages.

.

. .

. . .

Heavy silence dominated the security module where the Colonial Marines were standing guard, half of them to keep away unwanted visitors. The other half had their rifles ready to fire on the detained alien. Makarand stood in front of him, arms slightly parted to facilitate the draw of his firearm if need be. The alien was in a staring contest with the captain, only breaking the contact to turn his white hairless head towards Jonas when he walked in the room. It was large enough, the size of half a basketball court, but the alien could touch the ceiling if he raised an arm.

The first thing he noticed were his completely black eyes, and he regretted only coming in civilian clothes even if it was five in the morning. The alien didn't look like it was carrying a weapon beneath the black robe he wore over his strange, insectoid black armor. It glistened like wet organic skin. Perhaps it was more solid than it looked, hopefully not bulletproof in case he fired his handgun. Jonas took a deep, slow breath and tried to contain his anger.

"You must be Ikar."

Respectfully, almost provocatively, the alien bowed to him and brought his face closer to his by doing so.

"And you are the undying one, forever stuck in the realm of matter. I pity you."

He wanted to back away and come back at him with a hard swing, see how white his face would be with a nosebleed. It took all of his wit not to do that.

"Right. So I suppose that makes me the boss around here, doesn't it?"

Ikar straightened his back, making him as tall as seven feet, at least. His English was disturbingly good.

"Rest assured, I won't be of any trouble for you or your people. I am here to help you against the ones you call Grays."

Jonas checked Makarand's stupefied reaction, but neither of them were rejoicing at the idea of housing an alien like Ikar for an extended period of time.

"What's in it for you?" he inquired.

"Elevation," answered the pale man, his hairless brow lowering over his seemingly void orbits. "And it's my duty to watch over this colony. To ensure that your species follows the right path."

"That won't be necessary," Makarand interjected.

"War is upon you," replied Ikar, who then turned to look at all of the Marines. "Your weapons are insufficient. What I offer is far more valuable, and much more expeditious than anything you may use against an invader like the Grays. I wish for nothing in return but peace between our two people."

Jonas knew that speech; peace always came at a price, and endless compromising until it turned into tyranny. He kept in mind that Kim went through hell because of that being, her words still rung in his ears.  _Aliens take whatever they want._  However, he was still their leader and had to remain objective in his thinking. He couldn't let emotionality affect his decisions.

"Commissioner?" Makarand asked with an irritated grimace.

He blinked, unintentionally emptying his mind, becoming solely aware of his own breathing. He answered without having decided.

"You will be confined to this module until further notice," he told Ikar. "I will not have an Annunaki revelation event in this colony, and you are not to talk to anyone without supervision by either Captain Makarand or myself."

Ikar's light head inclination was curious, but he said nothing. Jonas continued.

"These men and women now have authority over you." He gave Makarand the silent order to take him away. "I sincerely hope, for your sake, that you came to do what you said."

"All in due time, Commissioner. These partnerships require work and patience."

He watched the Marines lead the alien into the secured part of the holding block, a cell originally meant to secure the first arriving intruders the day before. The mercenaries and their family were moved to the living quarters - another delicate situation to work with. Jonas avoided the dark stare of Ikar, feeling sweat beading between his shoulder blades as he exited the block. Makarand irritatedly sighed.

"He's the one who took Kim, isn't he? Why didn't you mention her?"

Now was not the time to release his anger, not at the Captain. Lips pinched and brow furrowed, he had trouble keeping his cool.

"And let him gloat at the fact that he could snatch our people so easily?" He shook his head. "Knowing her, she'll want to confront him herself when she's ready."

"No negotiations can be done before that happens, and we have to keep this contained... But one man can dream, I guess."

Fernstein would play a key role in preparing everyone to receive the news. Perhaps they could all work on a strategy to make things less black or white. Jonas hated the idea, but it was for the best.

"No one can know what happened to Kim over there," he reluctantly spoke, "or that it was Ikar who abducted her."

"They'll put the pieces together, Jonas. An alien arrives and returns us Kim, that would be a perfectly acceptable scenario, right?"

Ikar, the savior of the defenseless woman who had been taken by cruel alien slavers. He wanted to bang his head on the wall for deforming the harsh reality. He nodded, they had no other option.

"Let me talk to her first."

"Sure." Makarand hesitantly patted his shoulder. "I'd feel better if the idea came from her, too. And by the way... Can we see her now?"

He said  _we_  as those who didn't have the super-mutated genes. The reminder made Jonas slightly uncomfortable.

"Yes, she's doing fine now."

"Mentally? or just physically?"

"Really," he insisted, "she's okay."

They walked towards the habitat module, taking a long underground corridor where the only sound was the thud of their boots on the metal grate. Unavoidably, he thought of her naked form, so warm and soft to the touch while he'd reached deep inside of her in pure ecstasy. She'd cling to his neck, digging her nails into his back, and bite her lower lip with intense passion in her eyes. He needed a better hold of his urges now that he was off his meds.

Jonas stopped himself from opening the sealed hatch towards the living quarters.

"Pat, what will you tell Jessica?"

Makarand chewed the inside of his cheek before sarcastically complaining.

"I appreciate the vote of confidence."

He reached for the hatch lever and Jonas knocked his arm away.

"I'm serious, Makarand. You know what she thinks about Kim - about  _me_. She won't just shake her head when she finds out we're keeping an alien here."

"What  _do_  you think she'll do, huh? Not everything is so simple, and you're not the only one with problems here."

He combed his black hair with his hand and blew through his nostrils.

"We're all responsible for each other no matter what, it's what being part of a team means. So what if she tells you unpleasant truths, and maybe she'll even try to provoke you. But you know what else she told me, Jonas? She said you would rather let her deal with the entire colony instead of showing up, to put yourself out there."

Jonas said nothing, he was smart enough to know that Makarand was right.

"And I think you should talk to us more often and not assume so much. Jessica may not like you, but I think you're alright."

With that said he unlocked the door and they parted ways. The conversation still churned in his mind like a broken record. He remembered why he rarely talked to people, after months of living with them he didn't want to know what they thought about him. When he returned to his apartment he instantly noticed the shower running and looked at the translucent cabin. The silhouette of a woman in the foggy rain made an erotic display he had to fight not to stare at. Jonas unclipped his side-arm from his belt and placed it on the nearest table. In the kitchen, the coffee pot was full, bread was warming up in the toaster dispersing the appetizing smell of breakfast everywhere.

How would he break the news to her? Evidently she needed to be out of the shower and dressed. He waited in the kitchen, sat at the small table with a cup of coffee though he didn't have the heart to eat breakfast. Kim called from the other room.

"Is that you Jonas?"

"In here," he said, mindful that she probably wasn't decent yet.

He heard drawers opening and closing. It took her a minute to show up, wearing one of her long-sleeved black shirts and leggings. Her wet hair was wrapped in a towel around her head. She looked worried at the sight of him.

"What's wrong?"

"Ikar is here," he replied, watching her reaction but she just sat in front of him at the table. "We're keeping him in the holding block."

"Did he say anything?" Her voice had gone bitter, full of the despise she felt towards the intruder.

"He said he came here to help us against the Grays."

She let out a short 'ah' and got up to take a coffee mug from a cabinet.

"Are we accepting his help?"

"We don't really have a choice, do we?"

She leaned against the sink, stirring her coffee for a moment.

"Let me talk to him. The sooner, the better."

Jonas cocked an eyebrow and got up, unable to resist touching her for comfort.

"I'm honestly at a loss here. If there's anything you can tell me that could make it easier for everyone..."

It was her turn to look back at him with a curious expression.

"What are you talking about?"

He mulled the thought over before telling her that Makarand had put a dent in his confidence.

"I guess I'm asking for your help to deal with an alien in the colony."

Kim smiled, it was endearment or she was amused, he couldn't tell yet.

"We're a team, of course I'll help you."

Nodding, he kept his mouth shut and suddenly had to fight hard not to lose his cool in front of her. He really needed to relax more. He breathed in, and slowly breathed out while she held his hand affectionately. This wasn't right; he should have been the one comforting her before she was to face her abductor. His problems were insignificant, and he was getting away easily.

"I won't leave you alone with him," he said with conviction.

"But, you'll have to. He'll trust us if I show that I'm not afraid."

Finding that he had to support himself on something, he leaned beside Kim and made an attempt to alleviate his worries.

"He's not going anywhere, so maybe sit this one out. First, we need to work out a strategy to deliver the news and I need your advice, again."

She folded her arms tightly against her breasts, thoughtful. Then she pulled the towel from her head and ran her fingers through her black, wet hair.

"It's a tough one." She stared at him interrogatively.

"If people find out what happened to you, they will have him hanged." He rubbed his chin, realizing his hands had gone cold. "And even if we don't tell them, they'll figure out why he's here right after you got back."

"Then say whatever makes them think he's a good guy. I understand that it's your job to protect him. He's actually vulnerable here, you know? He's not getting reinforcements any time soon. His species hate him because of his deformities."

"Really?" He took a moment to process all that she'd just said. "How is he going to help us, then?"

"His ships. They're packing some kind of bio-weapon."

She stretched her shoulders as if shaking a shudder in her back. Jonas felt the same, except that this new piece of information changed everything.

"Could you confirm it if you saw it yourself?"

Shrugging, she took a sip of coffee and walked away from the counter, taking the humid towel with her.

"No, I don't think so."

He followed her, hoping to continue the conversation while she combed her hair in front of the bathroom's mirror. Resting against the door frame to keep it from closing by itself, he allowed himself to smile at the memories of their first time. Kim smiled back and returned to her hair maintenance.

"Makarand asked to see you," he said, suddenly remembering about that. "I thought you'd be ready to get some fresh air."

"Yeah, I am." She pulled the stray hairs from the comb and picked up a few from the floor before flushing them down the toilet. "Did Ikar talk about me?"

Her eyes looked troubled, and with perspective now Jonas could see that there were still raw emotions attached to the person of Ikar. It took him a little longer than he'd wished, but he replied anyway.

"He made no mention of you, neither did I."

"That's fine," she acquiesced and cleaned up her spot around the sink. "I want to put all of that behind me, that's why I need to see him. Closure, you know?"

Unable to shake the thought that, maybe once, Kim had felt something for Ikar, Jonas looked at her and hoped she would tell him everything, someday. As he articulated the thought in his head, Kim's face started decomposing and her eyes diverted elsewhere before leaving. She stopped by the door, waiting for him to make way. When he didn't move she slid passed him and he followed her to the couch where she sat, covering her mouth with both her hands. Bracing for a heart-to-heart Jonas crouched in front of her, and tenderly caressed her knees, ready to listen.

"Talk to me, Kim," he urged. "You can tell me anything."

Sniffling, she looked at his hands and held them, it seemed that his touch was giving her the courage to speak.

"When I was taken away I'd lost all hope of coming back. He promised me a life on his planet, learning new things and becoming an ambassador of Earth..." She caught her breath, shaking her head bitterly. "And I wanted that. It was... a purpose. He made me feel important, so in return I gave him my trust. I told him so much about me..."

Her mouth crumpled up in a shameful pout and she bit her lips.

"It's alright," he assured, "you needed to do that, it was survival."

"I tried," she said, "but for a moment I really believed I was going to be his...  _companion_. But you should know, I never let him touch me. That's why he tried to force me at the end, even though he knew I was-"

She cut herself short of the rest of her thought. Her usually calm eyes peered into his, hopeful and almost desperate. What for? Did she expect him to forgive her for everything? Because he already did.

"Yes?" he asked, waiting for her to finish.

Hesitant, she brought her attention to the bay window screen, seeing the outdoors video footage of the rising sun over the snowy hills.

"I even told him about you. He knows of my feelings for you."

He had mixed emotions. Knowing that an alien was aware of her deepest secrets made him furious, but all the while he felt proud - no, he was blissful - that she'd stay true to her feelings. Sitting beside her he circled an arm around Kim and she nestled upon his chest. She was a strong woman, but so fragile whenever she opened up to him.

"I understand," he whispered, stroking her hair. Then he faced her to clearly speak his mind. "I'm not holding anything against you, do you realize that? Nothing was your fault."

Visibly she had trouble dealing with guilt. Kim nodded eventually but he wasn't letting her confront Ikar in this state.

"Let's get you bio-haz proof." He smirked and rubbed her back encouragingly. "And it's still cold outside if you want to take that walk."

A change of air would do them the most good, especially this early in the morning when no one was outside. He equipped Kim with a practical combat suit with special anti-tear fabric. Even without any combat training, the outfit matched her frame without being constricting. The climate-controlled weaving would minimize sweating, and if she kept her hair neatly tied or braided, there was no reason for her cells to spread out. He used a protective, transparent dermatological gel on her cleaned face which should prevent her skin from shedding. It dried but left a slightly shiny residue.

"You have really soft hands," she said as he spread the produce on her forehead and cheeks.

He felt too concerned for her the moment people would start asking questions. It was nearly seven, when the mess hall was packed for breakfast time.

"Aren't you using this gel yourself?" she asked before they walked out.

"No," he replied. "I noticed that you touch your face very often, so until you lose that habit you need to use the gel."

"Oh," Kim looked at her gloved hands. "What about eating?"

"Will you need a bib?"

"In case I feel the urge to kiss everyone on the mouth today."

They both laughed. But Jonas had the image in his head and waited to unlock the door with his integrated bio-tool.

"Want to get that out of your system?" he shot out to Kim.

She gave him a sideways sneer. A cocked eyebrow denoted her playfulness.

"Why? You're afraid I might kiss you in front of your buddies?"

In the moment he knew it was meant as a harmless joke. Yet, it managed to raise another question: was she afraid of public displays of affection, too? Jonas tilted his head and pretended to think really hard about what he was going to say. In fact, having a woman in all black combat dress uniform, with whom he was ready to share everything, was something he didn't want to keep all for himself. He was ready to admit to everyone what he felt.

"I'd rather you didn't go near other people for now," he answered.

She scoffed. "If I didn't know you better I'd say you were being a little jealous."

"Protective, maybe."

Tilting her head to the side, she brought a lock of hair behind her ear. "It's not protection I want from you."

He felt the need growing and pressing him to touch her and hopefully she wanted it, too. But if he kept thinking about the way she'd put her hands on his body, tasting him and adoring him with every breath, he'd never let them out of the apartment. She seemed to want to act like a different person now even though he could get lost in her exotic brown eyes.

Defiantly holding her gaze, he manually pushed the door control open while the automatic override could have just done the job. He needed to physically distance himself and take the first step towards the rest of the world. It hadn't occurred to him that he'd be so easily swayed from his primary goal, when caring for a person such as Kim had first appeared to be uncomplicated.

The first person they met outside was Ben Stevens and Andrea O'Reilly. They were on their way to the mess hall and both gaped their mouths at the sight of Kim. Enthusiastically approaching, they produced high-pitched noises of awe and warmth.

"I can't believe it, Kim!" Andrea spread her arms and Kim was too late to avoid the hug she was attacked with. Her eyes pleaded at Jonas for help, not knowing how to politely push away the young woman.

"We were so worried about you," Ben said. "Especially this gentleman here."

Jonas silently observed, waiting for the difficult questions to arise. The young astronomer grabbed Kim's arm to take her along for a walk.

"Come, we were about to get breakfast."

Resisting, Kim shook her head, embarrassed to refuse.

"I'd love to stay and chat but we have plans. Another time, for sure."

The other couple looked at Jonas with inquisitive stares. While Ben was expressing a devious approval, Andrea appeared shocked. It was almost a sad surprise.

"What happened? Are you... like Jonas, now?"

"Yeah," replied Kim, rolling her eyes to the ceiling. "But don't go panicky on me right now, I have stuff to straighten out with... an old friend."

"We'll keep you posted," added Jonas, nodding at Ben. He intended to send him a full report and Andrea wasn't privy to this level of detail.

He took Kim towards the security headquarters.

"Are you okay to do this on an empty stomach?"

"Are  _you_?" she retorted.

"You said you needed to get this done as soon as possible."

She took his arm, squeezing his bicep while they walked along the dark corridors.

"I didn't expect to see Andrea with Stevens," she commented. "She's just a kid and he's at least forty."

"I know, it's so gross," he ironically agreed.

A silence passed before Kim found a rebuttal.

"But you stopped getting old around my age. And it's different..."

Jonas slowed down, pacing at a more convenient speed to give them more time. Kim searched her thoughts.

"Ikar is tens of thousands of years old and I almost forgot about it for a time. So I guess I understand why Andrea chose to be with Ben instead of someone her own age."

Once again, he couldn't prevent feeling like he was coming second in her heart. Jonas knew it was selfish of him to think that way.

"I didn't choose you," he said, hoping to contribute to the debate, "you just happened to be the one I wanted."

"Aw, stop." She squeezed his arm again, her face touching his sleeve. "Now I'm all hot and flustered."

"Well, it's true," he insisted, stopping at a corner. A nearby electric control panel flashed its green and red lights on them. "And I know you couldn't have chosen me either, because you'd rather be alone than share your pain with anyone else."

She tightened her lips and diverted her gaze. Jonas cupped his hands around her cheeks and let her get close to him.

"No tears," he told her, even though he fought to keep his own in. "You're not alone anymore. Whatever you do or say reflects on me, and  _vice versa_."

Sniffling loudly she managed to suck in the water in her eyelids and her gloved hands were around his neck to kiss him. Moving his hands to her waist he let Kim wrap herself around him for a moment. He fixed the hair coming loose from her pony tail and stepped back.

"You look... very professional."

"Thanks. You're a good coach."

He'd known that working was just as important as breathing for her. It took a lot of willpower to distinguish her actions from what he saw in her, or what she wanted to project. Jonas wasn't sure about anything. In the darkness, Kim's expression was more serene than satisfied, and that was good enough to build her own confidence for what had to come next.

The security HQ briefing room was only steps away and he took a deep breath before introducing Kim to the Marines. Makarand was there. The Captain greeted Kim with a surprised grin and he kept the briefing table between him and them. Gina Devereaux was present, as well as Leo Xiu and even Vick Adams. Apparently he'd had time to recover from the gunshot wound.

"Welcome back, Miss Tang," Makarand announced.

Jonas checked her attitude. Evidently happy to see them, her voice was a little shaky when she replied.

"It's good to be back."

"You look good," told Gina, with a curious and fascinated stare.

"Yes, well," interrupted Makarand, "you'll have time to catch up later. Where are we on the recon progress?"

Clearing his throat, Vick took a limping step forward and waved a hologram to life over the backlit briefing table. The diagram of the alien ship appeared, showing the different rooms inside.

"We've still got no clue how to access the mid-section rooms, even with the glyphs supposed to open the doors."

Kim came forward to study the three-dimensional map, furrowing her brow in concentration. Everyone observed her expectantly.

"That's where the bio-weapon is stored," she said, as if thinking out loud.

Makarand, creasing his forehead, sounded skeptic.

"Are you sure? Our scans couldn't detect any warheads or explosive matter."

Pacing back slowly, she faced the captain and then looked at the Marines.

"Why not bring him in here?"

Jonas, knowing who she was referring to, gave her a sideways glance and spoke before anyone else took that freedom.

"We're going to assess Ikar's motivations before we go any further. Kim is volunteering for an interrogation since she's confirmed that it's the alien she spent the most time with."

"Yes, I can get behind that," acquiesced Makarand, "but I'd like to be filled in on your story, first."

"I'll give you the main lines," Kim responded, sounding irritated. "He found me in the middle of a magnetic storm because he was studying our species. I accepted to travel to Esharra, his homeworld, and I wasn't welcome there so, here I am."

Feeling his muscles contract in his face, it was hard for Jonas to stand next to her and not express concern at her reaction. Hopefully the Marines would understand that she wasn't comfortable talking about her journey. And, perhaps letting her interrogate Ikar wasn't the right thing to do. Sucking in the air into his lungs, Jonas approached the display projector to change the image into the holding block's video feed. He kept a close watch on Kim as the picture of Ikar came into view. He was sitting on a bench, the angle pointing downward from the opposite of the room. His eyes were closed and he was leaning against the wall, like napping.

She took a step closer and peered at the surveillance images, mouth shut tight and then she nodded.

"Yep. That's him."

"What else can you tell us about him?" he asked, keeping his voice level.

Kim stepped back and crossed her arms, as if she'd changed her mind about being there.

"He is a naval officer and his mission is to scout the galaxy to survey intelligent life forms, respond to distress signals, stuff like that. I saw him use projectile weapons, maybe energy ones, too. And he can also use blades, spears..." She shrugged and her eyes left the table to meet Jonas's for a fraction of a second. Then she turned her head towards the door. "He has an honor code with other soldier types, so I wouldn't worry about getting into a fight unless there was a war going on."

"Thank you, Kim." Moving up to touch her shoulder, Makarand almost made her startle. "We can use that. Maybe you can sit back and oversee the interrogation for the time being."

"I'm not worried. But for as long as he hasn't seen me I suspect he'll try to bargain with us, and we don't want that." Breathing deeply, she came back to the projector and brought up her own diagrams of the region, searched the hills and mountains for a while before pointing at a precise location. "This is where he landed the second ship. He keeps an arsenal inside."

"What kind?" Vick asked. He leaned forward to support himself on the edge of the table.

"You'll have to ask him or see for yourself."

Makarand walked around the room to get near the exit.

"Well, it's clear to me that we need Ikar as an ally and not as our enemy. Even if he's outnumbered, right now, he's nothing but confident and I don't like it."

"I'd be careful with the term  _ally_  because his species considers itself superior to ours. They... created us, even if we evolved differently they were the ones seeding primordial planets for millions of years."

Silence hung in the briefing as everyone seemed to let that idea sink in.

"Don't let that get into your heads," Makarand snapped. "We'll let you lead the investigation, Kim. The Marines are here for your support, as always. Don't hesitate to utilize them."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That was the last chapter I wrote for Transcending before I started working on another story of original SF crime. I'm going to put this one on hiatus until further notice. Thanks so much for reading and following this story!
> 
> Remember you can always review and send me a message with your thoughts. I often get inspiration from my readers, and you guys in the Prometheus fandom are so cool and awesome, you have the power to keep me writing!


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